Shock Global Safety Ranking For The UK

The UK does not make Europe's top 20 for occupational health and safety performance and only just scrapes into the top 30 worldwide, according to a new ranking.

The Health and Safety Risk Index (HSRI) prepared by Maplecroft, a UK firm that assesses global risks for business, assessed the occupational health and safety performance of 176 countries. Using data sources including the International Labour Office (ILO), World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Bank, HSRI scored performance across eight indicators, including work related fatalities and injuries, number of accidents causing work absences, number of deaths from work related diseases, expenditure on health, life expectancy, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and the total number of ILO conventions ratified.

According to the research, nine countries fall into the 'extreme risk' category, with the Democratic Republic of Congo worst rated, followed by Nigeria, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. The UK is ranked the 30 safest nation, placing it at the mid-point of the 'low risk' group. Among the 30 OECD nations, the UK is ranked at a lowly 20th - although some other major OECD nations have worse still rankings, including the USA, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Worldwide, Denmark achieves the best occupational health and safety ranking, followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland. According to Alyson Warhurst, chief executive of Maplecroft and a professor at Warwick University's business school: 'A safe and healthy working environment is vital. Organisations should ensure that best practice is observed not only in their own operations, but throughout their supply chains, to increase competitive advantage and reduce the risk of complicity in human and labour rights violations.' Source:

TUC Risks

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