Great Britain One Of Safest Places To Work As Annual Fatalities Fall

The Health and Safety Executive has released annual figures showing 126 work related deaths in 2025/26 and new analysis comparing fatal injury rates across 35 countries, reinforcing Great Britain s position as one of the safer places to work and highlighting sector and demographic risk patterns.

New statistics from the Health and Safety Executive show 126 workers were killed in work related incidents in Great Britain in 2025/26. The HSE also published a new international comparison covering 35 countries worldwide, which for the first time allows Britain's fatal injury trends to be compared more widely and supports the view that Great Britain remains one of the safer places to work.

Excluding the years affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the provisional total for 2025/26 is the lowest recorded in a single year, and compares with 217 worker deaths in 2005/06 and 495 in 1981. The industries with the largest numbers of deaths were construction with 25 fatalities and agriculture forestry and fishing with 22. Agriculture forestry and fishing has the highest rate of fatal injury at 8.09 per 100,000 workers, followed by waste and recycling at 5.47, against an all industry average of 0.37 per 100,000. Falls from a height remained the most common cause of fatal injury with 31 deaths, and workers aged 60 and over accounted for around a third of fatalities despite representing about 12 percent of the workforce. A further 104 members of the public who were not working at the time were killed in work related incidents.

The published figures for mesothelioma show 2,146 deaths in Great Britain in 2024, a fall of 109 compared with 2023 and substantially below the ten year average of 2,508 for 2011 to 2020. Many current mesothelioma deaths reflect asbestos exposure that often occurred before the 1980s, and annual deaths are expected to continue declining over the next decade. The HSE notes that the work related fatality totals cover accidents and do not include deaths arising from occupational disease other than the separate mesothelioma release.

For health and safety practitioners and regulators the statistics underline the continuing need to target prevention activity at higher risk sectors and causes, in particular falls from height and work in construction, agriculture forestry and fishing. The international comparison provides a new benchmarking tool to inform policy and practice, while the demographic pattern observed reinforces the importance of considering age related risk and adapting controls and training accordingly.

HSE Corporate News