More than 2 million construction working days lost a year to ill health, says HSE

The construction industry is losing more than two million working days each year due to work-related health problems, the latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive reveal.

Three-quarters of the 2.2 million working days lost each year are due to work-related illness, while workplace injury accounts for the remaining quarter.

The figure is an estimated annual average based on the most recent years (2018/19-2021/22) using data from the Labour Force Survey,

Of the 78,000 work related ill-health cases recorded among construction workers in the more recent 2019/20-2021/22 period, 53% were musculoskeletal disorders.

In the most recent year (2021/22), there were 30 fatal injuries to workers in construction – slightly lower than the average 36 recorded over recent years (2017/18-2021/22).

>> Comment: Start saving lives with a positive safety culture 

Falls from height accounted for the majority of deaths (51%) over the period, with the fatal injury rate (1.63% per 100,000 workers) four times higher than the all-industry rate.

There were 59,000 cases of non-fatal work-related injury in construction last year, with a non-fatal injury rate of 2,800 per 100,000 workers – the all-industry rate sat at 1,650.

Around 2.9% of construction workers suffered from an injury, significantly higher than that for workers across all industries (1.6%).