Current health and safety figures hide the losses to people and employers, says Lawrence Waterman, who warns that the new statistics show a worrying plateau of injuries.
At first glance, the most recent data on ill health, injuries and working days lost from work look reassuring. Fatalities are down, injuries are at about the same level as last year, and ill health seems fairly stable. But when interrogated, the statistics tell a very different story. The cost of getting health and safety in the workplace wrong represents billions of pounds at a time when the economy and organisations should be making all the savings they can. The numbers are in fact a call to action and not support for a complacent 'business as usual' attitude.