The Health and Safety Executive has published the latest annual statistics covering work-related ill health, injury, and fatalities in Great Britain for 2024/25. HSE Workplace Statistics 2024/25. These figures serve as a vital barometer for the overall health of workplaces across industries — and they underline several key areas that businesses, large and small, must continue to address.
Key headline figures
Here are some of the major data points that stand out for 2024/25:
- An estimated 1.9 million working people suffered from work-related ill-health in 2024/25.
- Of those, 964,000 workers reported stress, depression or anxiety caused or made worse by work.
- A further 511,000 reported a work-related musculoskeletal disorder.
- Non-fatal injuries: An estimated 680,000 working people sustained a non-fatal injury at work.
- Fatal injuries: 124 workers died in work-related incidents during the 2024/25 period (an improvement of 14 fewer deaths compared to the previous year).
- Working days lost due to ill health and workplace injury totalled around 40.1 million.
- The estimated annual cost of workplace injuries and new cases of ill health reached £22.9 billion (based on rolling averages for 2023/24) — broadly consistent with the prior year.
What these numbers tell us
These statistics reflect several critical insights for any business responsible for workplace health and safety:
1. The challenge of ill health remains very significant
While the numbers for fatalities are relatively lower than in many decades past, the fact that nearly two million workers experienced ill health shows how pervasive the problem is. Mental health (stress, depression, anxiety) remains a major driver. The musculoskeletal burden is still high as well.
2. Persistent risk of injury
With 680,000 non-fatal injuries and many more perhaps unreported or self-reported outside the official regulatory system, the message is clear: injury risk remains real. For the construction, agriculture, waste & recycling and other higher-risk sectors, the focus must remain sharp.
3. Fatalities still matter — each one is avoidable
Although 124 deaths might seem a “small” number in the context of 32+ million workers, each one represents a worker, a family, a business scene turned tragic. Importantly, the highest numbers of deaths remain in sectors such as construction and agriculture.
4. Economic-cost pressure remains heavy
40.1 million lost working days and £22.9 billion in estimated cost: For an organisation, large or small, the indirect and direct costs of health and safety failures are material. They affect productivity, staff retention, reputation, compliance risk and business continuity.
Implications for your business & what you should focus on
Given these figures, if your organisation places any reliance on external safety-support (such as outsourced safety services) or has internal H&S teams, it’s worth considering the following action areas:
- Mental health & well-being: Since stress, depression, and anxiety dominate the ill-health figures, businesses must ensure their health & safety strategy includes psychological risks (workload, remote/hybrid working, support mechanisms, bullying/harassment, workplace culture), not just physical hazards.
- Musculoskeletal risks: Whether work is manual (lifting, repetitive actions, awkward postures) or involves significant time at display screens, consider reviewing ergonomic assessments, manual-handling training and DSE processes.
- High-risk sectors/tasks: If your operation includes any of the sectors with elevated fatality or injury rates (construction, agriculture/forestry/fishing, waste/recycling) then proactive risk management of fall-from-height, working with vehicles, machinery/plant, and near-miss reporting is essential.
- Non-fatal injury monitoring & intervention: A robust incident/near-miss reporting culture can catch small issues before they become costly. Use the lost-day figures as a reminder that even non-fatal incidents create a burden.
- Cost awareness: For directors and senior management, translating safety performance into cost metrics (working-days lost, financial impact) helps make the business case for investment in safety resources, training, engagement and monitoring.
- Continuous review: Trends in older data show improvements in some areas (e.g., fatal injuries down when compared to decades ago) but less improvement in some other areas (mental health, musculoskeletal disorders). An outsourced safety partner should be capable of helping you embed continuous improvement, not just compliance.
Why this matters
These statistics highlight both the continuing need for expert health & safety support and the opportunity to add value beyond mere regulatory compliance:
- Partnering with businesses to address latent hazards (not just the obvious ones).
- Supporting clients with mental-health and ergonomic interventions in addition to traditional safety.
- Providing data-driven insights — using industry benchmarks (such as these HSE figures) to help clients measure their performance, set targets, and track improvement.
- Ensuring that safety programmes are embedded in business strategy and culture, not just safety committees or incident response.
- Translating safety outcomes into commercial metrics (reduced days lost, fewer incidents, lower insurance premiums) so that board-level stakeholders engage.
Final thoughts
The 2024/25 HSE statistics provide a clear message: while progress has been made, much remains to be done. The large number of workers suffering ill-health and the ongoing burden of non-fatal injuries show that a safe working environment encompasses more than preventing major accidents — it includes day-to-day risks, psychological hazards, and systematic controls.
For businesses of all sizes, health and safety – when done well – isn’t a cost centre: it’s part of sustainable performance, workforce retention and corporate responsibility. The role of an external safety partner should therefore be positioned not just in terms of compliance, but as a strategic asset.
