The latest Labour Force Survey, which is based on absences self-reported by employees, found that the construction industry has the second-highest rate of workplace injuries out of every industry group
According to the report, construction industry workers lost more than 400,000 days of work due to workplace injuries in the last financial year.
The figures come as recent data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found injuries across all industry groups are costing the country over £21 billion.
Disparity between employer and employee reports
Statistics newly released by the HSE show that 4,050 non-fatal injuries were reported by employers in the construction sector. This is in addition to the 51 cases of fatal workplace accidents disclosed by the HSE this summer, the highest among any industry group.
However, a review by Accident At Work Claim UK identified that the figures do not account for injuries employers were not obligated to report or those they failed to follow the correct procedure, and that the actual number was as much as ten times higher.
Using an average from employee surveys taken over the past three years, the LFS estimates that construction workers suffer closer to 47,000 injuries annually.
Of the 47,000 estimated injuries, 22,000 caused an absence of over three days. 16,000 of those kept the employee out of action for more than seven working days.
Workplace injuries down, fatalities up
According to Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), workplace injuries have fallen in the last three years post-COVID, with 2023/24 seeing a 4% decrease in 2021/22.
While projecting a much higher injury tally, the LFS also shows a drop in injuries, with the three-year average for 2021/22 to 2023/24 down on the 61,000 average for 2018/19 to 2020/21.
In spite of this, non-fatal incidents in the civil engineering sub-group have risen across the same period, from 500 to 524, and one worker in every 327 suffering a non-fatal injury at work.
51 employees and three members of the public have been reported as killed, with falls from height being the most prevalent cause for employees at 31 fatal accidents. Seven were from collision with a moving vehicle.
Slips, trips, and falls are the most common causes of construction injury
Accounting for 972 cases, slips, trips, and falls were the most common cause of injury in the time period, down from 1,049. Handling, lifting, and carrying was the next most common at 742.
261 injuries were caused by moving machinery, while 25 injuries were caused by being trapped by, or otherwise injured by collapsing or overturning objects.
807 workers suffered harm from falling from a height, with an additional 14 injuries caused by an animal and 11 caused by acts of violence.
LFS data suggests that construction workers had the second-highest injury rate out of any major industry group. The estimated incidence rate, using the three-year average for 2021/22 to 2023/24, was 2,390 per 100,000, or one in every 42.
Read the full HSE report here.
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