At the end of last year the HSE released their ninth report in the series of Hazardous Installations Directorate Statistics, presenting data on injuries, diseases and incidents reported for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. This report was the follow up to the 'headline' statistics published in August 2009. The main points of the full report are:

  • No fatalities arising from offshore work activities regulated by HSE were reported in 2008/09 for a second successive year.
  • 30 major injuries were reported, compared to 44 in 2007/08. This is the lowest recorded since 1995/96.
  • The major injury rate per 100,000 workers decreased from last year's figure of 156.4 to 106.3 and is the lowest recorded since 1995/96. The combined fatal and major injury rate is the same as the major injury rate.
  • 140 'over-3-day' injuries were reported, a decrease of 8 compared to the previous year. The over-3-day injury rate decreased from 526.1 per 100,000 workers to 496 – a decrease of 5.7% compared to 2007/08. This is 61.6% lower than the peak of 1293 in 1995/96.
  • 477 dangerous occurrences were reported, compared to 509 in 2007/08, a decrease of 32. This is 37.6% less than the peak of 764 in 2000/01.
  • The estimated offshore workforce was 28224 compared to 28,176 in 2006/07 and 28,132 in 2007/08 – essentially unchanged over a 3-year period.
  • The 'maintenance/construction' work process environment continued to produce the highest number of 'all injuries' and 'major injuries' this year, followed by 'deck operations'.
  • 'Injuries from handling, lifting or carrying' was the most common type of injury accident, followed by injuries arising from being 'struck be moving objects' and 'slips, trips and falls'. These three categories account for 89% of all injuries. Injuries from being struck by moving objects produced a third of all major injuries. The significant majority (80%) of major injuries were to limbs.
  • The ratio of over-3-day to major injuries increased by 39% in 2008/09. This reflects the falling percentage of major injuries among the total of all injuries compared to last year for a similar level of work activity. This is the best ratio performance since 1996/97.
  • This year the three-year rolling average of injury rate for major and over-3-day injuries shows a continuation of the overall downward trend over the past 10 years.

Whilst these figures show that progress is being made in offshore safety the HSE's remit does not extend to air and marine transport activities meaning that these figures do not take into account the Super Puma incident on 1 April 2009 which killed all 16 passengers.

To read the report in full, please click here (www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/statistics/hsr0809.pdf).

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

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The original publication date for this article was 28/01/2010.