The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its annual statistics on ill health and injuries in the workplace for the year 2023/24.

The number of employees who reported suffering from work-related ill health was 1.7 million. This is broadly unchanged from the figure of 1.8 million in 2022/23 but is higher than in 2018/19, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

An estimated 776,000 cases of ill health, or 46 per cent of the total, were due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety, a decrease from 910,000 in the previous year. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 543,000 cases, or 32 per cent of the total.

138 workers were killed in work-related accidents and 604,000 workers sustained non-fatal injuries. The highest number of fatal accidents were in the construction and the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors, accounting for 51 and 23 deaths respectively.

An estimated 33.7 million working days were lost due to workplace ill health or injury.