Manufacturing fatalities fall

Data released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reveals that 148 workers were fatally injured between April 2012 and March 2013, compared with 172 in the previous year. In the manufacturing sector, there were 20 fatal injuries, lower than the five-year average of 28. The latest rate of fatal injury per 100,000 manufacturing workers (regarded as the most important statistic) is 0.7, compared to an average rate of 0.9 over the previous five years. HSE chairman Judith Hackitt (pictured) said: "The fact that Britain continues to have one of the lowest levels of workplace fatalities in Europe will be of little consolation to those who lose family members, friends and work colleagues." In other key industrial sectors, there were 39 fatal injuries to construction workers, a rate of 1.9 deaths per 100,000 workers; 29 fatal injuries to agricultural workers, a rate of 8.8 deaths per 100,000 workers; and 10 fatal injuries to waste and recycling workers, a rate of 8.2 deaths per 100,000 workers.