Health and safety foundations
Section 37 Personal liability of directors
1.15 Moral, legal and fi nancial arguments for health and safety management
1.15.1 Moral arguments
The moral arguments are refl ected by the occupational accident and disease rates.
Accident rates
Accidents at work can lead to serious injury and even death. Although accident rates are discussed in greater detail in later Chapters, some trends are shown in Tables 1.1–1.4 below. A major accident is a serious accident typically involving a fracture of a limb or a 24 hour stay in a hospital. An ‘over three-day accident’s an accident which leads to more than 3 days off work. Statistics are collected on all people who are injured at places of work not just employees.
It is important to note that since 1995 suicides and trespassers on the railways have been included in the HSE fi gures – this has led to a signifi cant increase in the fi gures. Table 1.1 details accidents involving all people at a place of work over a four year period. In 2005/06, there were 384 fatal injuries to members of the public and about 66% of these were due to acts of suicide or trespass on the railways.
Table 1.2 shows, for the year 2004/05, the breakdown in accidents between employees, self-employed and members of the public. Table 1.3 shows the fi gures for Figure 1.10 Good standards prevent harm and save money.
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Health and safety foundations
17 employees only. It shows that whilst there has been a
decline in fatalities, major accidents have increased.
Table 1.4 gives an indication of accidents in different employment sectors.
These fi gures indicate that there is a need for health and safety awareness even in occupations which many would consider very low hazard, such as schools, the health services and hotels. In fact over 70% of all deaths occur in the service sector and manufacturing is consid- erably safer than construction and agriculture.
In 2005/06, slips and trips accounted for 38% of major accidents whereas 41% of over three-day injuries were caused by handling, lifting and carrying.
Although there has been a decrease in fatalities over recent years, there is still a very strong moral case for improvement in health and safety performance.
Disease rates
Work related ill-health and occupational disease can lead to absence from work and, in some cases, to death.
Table 1.2 Accidents for different groups of people for 2004/05
Deaths Major Over 3 day
Total 593 46 018 122 922
Employees 172 (29%) 30 451 121 779 Self employee 51 (9%) 1 251 1 143 Members of 370 (62%) 14 316 n/a the public
Table 1.3 Accidents involving employees in the workplace
Injury 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 Death 183 168 172 160 Major 28 113 30 666 30 451 28 605 Over 3 day 128 184 129 143 121 779 117 471
Table 1.4 Accidents (per 100000 workers) to all workers in various employment sectors (2005/06)
Sector Deaths Majors
Agriculture 4.6 211.7
Construction 3.5 310.2
Transport 3.1 398.2
Manufacturing 1.4 180.3
Retail and wholesale 1.3 257.6
Hotel and catering 0.1 65.4
Health services 0.1 70.8
Injury 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 Death 623 606 593 596 Major 41 985 45 516 46 018 45 230 Over 3 day 129 135 130 247 122 922 118 645 Table 1.1 Accidents involving all people at a place of work
Such occurrences may also lead to costs to the state (the Industrial Injuries Scheme) and to individual employ- ers (sick pay and, possibly, compensation payments).
In 2004/05 a major survey was undertaken into self- reported work related illness. In that year there were 2.0 m people in the UK suffered from work related illness of whom 600 000 were new cases in that year. This led to 28 m working days lost compared to 6 m due to workplace injury. The top four illnesses were:
➤ musculoskeletal disorders 1010 k
➤ stress related 509 k
➤ lower respiratory disease 137 k
➤ deafness, tinnitus and other ear problems 74 k 11.6 m working days were lost due to musculoskeletal disorders causing each sufferer to have 21 days off work on average and 12.8 m working days were lost due to stress, depression and anxiety causing each sufferer to have 31 days off work on average. Recent research has shown that one in fi ve people who are on sickness leave from work for six weeks, will stay off work and leave paid employment.
III-health statistics are estimated either from self- reported cases (Table 1.5) or from data supplied by hospital specialists and occupational physicians (Table 1.6). The number of self-reported cases will always be much higher than those seeking advice from hospital- based specialists.
1.15.2 Legal arguments
The legal arguments, concerning the employer’s duty of care in criminal and civil law, have been covered earlier.
Some statistics on legal enforcement indicate the legal consequences resulting from breaches in health and safety law. There have been some very high compensation
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18
awards for health and safety cases in the civil courts and fi nes in excess of £100,000 in the criminal courts. Table 1.7 shows the number of enforcement notices served over a three year period by the HSE. Most notices are served in the manufacturing sector followed by construction and agriculture. Local Authorities serve 40% of all improve- ment notices and 20% of all prohibition notices.
Table 1.8 shows the number of prosecutions by the HSE over the same three year period and it can be seen that approximately 70% of those prosecuted are convicted. There was a reduction in the number of prosecutions over the three year period but provisional fi gures for 2006/07 show an increase of 20% in the number of prosecutions. HSE present 80% of the Table 1.5 Self-reported work-related illness for 2005/06
Type of Illness Prevalence (thousands) Musculoskeletal disorders of the 437
back
Musculoskeletal disorders of the 374 neck or upper limbs
Musculoskeletal disorders of the 209 lower limbs
Musculoskeletal disorders in 1020 total
Stress, depression or anxiety 420 Breathing or lung problems 156 Hearing problems 68 Other (eg. skin or heart 294 problems)
Total 1958
Table 1.6 Average annual incidence of new work-related illness reported by specialist doctors for 2003–05
Mental Health (stress, anxiety) 7 200 Musculoskeletal disorders 6 400 Dermatitis and other skin disorders 3 500
Respiratory Disease 3 200
Infections 1 300
Hearing Loss 400
Total 22 000
Table 1.7 Number of enforcement notices issued over a three year period by the HSE
Year Improvement Notice Prohibition Notice
2003/04 6798 4537
2004/05 5186 3285
2005/06 3787 2596
Table 1.8 Number of prosecutions by the HSE over a three year period
Year Offences prosecuted Convictions
2003/04 1720 1317
2004/05 1320 1025
2005/06 1012 741
prosecutions and the remainder are presented by Local Authority Environmental Health Offi cers. Most of these prosecutions are for infringements of the Construction Regulations and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations.
There are some clear legal reasons for sound health and safety management systems.
1.15.3 Financial arguments
Costs of accidents
Any accident or incidence of ill-health will cause both direct and indirect costs and incur and insured and an uninsured cost. It is important that all of these costs are taken into account when the full cost of an accident is calculated. In a study undertaken by the HSE, it was shown that indirect costs or hidden costs could be 36 times greater than direct costs of an accident. In other words, the direct costs of an accident or disease repre- sent the tip of the iceberg when compared to the overall costs (Figure 1.11).
Direct costs
These are costs which are directly related to the acci- dent and may be insured or uninsured.
Insured direct costs normally include:
➤ claims on employers and public liability insurance
➤ damage to buildings, equipment or vehicles
➤ any attributable production and/or general business loss.
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Health and safety foundations
19 Uninsured direct costs include:
➤ fi nes resulting from prosecution by the enforcement authority
➤ sick pay
➤ some damage to product, equipment, vehicles or process not directly attributable to the accident (e.g.
caused by replacement staff)
➤ increases in insurance premiums resulting from the accident
➤ any compensation not covered by the insurance pol- icy due to an excess agreed between the employer and the insurance company
➤ legal representation following any compensation claim.
Indirect costs
These are costs which may not be directly attributable to the accident but may result from a series of accidents.
Again these may be insured or uninsured.
Insured indirect costs can include:
➤ a cumulative business loss
➤ product or process liability claims
➤ recruitment of certain replacement staff.
Uninsured indirect costs include:
➤ loss of goodwill and a poor corporate image
➤ accident investigation time and any subsequent remedial action required
➤ production delays
➤ extra overtime payments
➤ lost time for other employees, such as a First Aider, who attend to the needs of the injured person
➤ the recruitment and training of most replacement staff
➤ additional administration time incurred
➤ fi rst aid provision and training
➤ lower employee morale possibly leading to reduced productivity
Some of these items, such as business loss, may be unin- surable or too prohibitively expensive to insure. Therefore, insurance policies can never cover all of the costs of an accident or disease either because some items are not covered by the policy or the insurance excess is greater than the particular item cost.