Benefits of good health and safety

Addressing health and safety should not be seen as a regulatory burden. It offers significant opportunities and benefits can include:

  • reduced costs
  • reduced risks
  • lower employee absence and turnover rates
  • fewer accidents
  • lessened threat of legal action
  • improved standing among suppliers and partners
  • better reputation for corporate responsibility among investors, customers and communities
  • increased productivity, because employees are healthier, happier and better motivated

Costs of poor health and safety at work

HSE statistics reveal the human and financial cost of failing to address health and safety. Each year:

  • millions of working days are lost due to work-related illness and injury
  • thousands of people die from occupational diseases
  • around a million workers self-report suffering from a work-related illness
  • several hundred thousand workers are injured at work
  • a worker is fatally injured almost every working day

Organisations can incur further costs – such as uninsured losses and loss of reputation.

You can find the latest information on the HSE statistics site.

Case studies

You can find case studies of leading on health and safety.

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Updated 2024-09-11