The HSE NI was established in 1978 via the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 following the extension of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 to Northern Ireland. It was founded as the Health and Safety Agency for Northern Ireland and then renamed as an Executive.
This year's report on the work done by the HSENI and the statistics around work place deaths and injuries is their twenty-fourth Annual Report
and Accounts. As stated in the introduction to the document, which can be downloaded from the Unionsafety E-Library, 'inspection
numbers increased from 2,930 in the previous year to 5,108 which
was above our target.
Overall we delivered 18,688 interactions
to improve health and safety standards in NI. 433 formal
enforcement notices were served. Our Major Investigation Team
progressed 18 prosecutions through the courts which resulted in
fines of £522,500. HSENI maintained its commitment to reduce
occupational ill health in partnership working with a number of
organisations.'
The format of HSENI report and accounts differs from that of the England and Wales HSE report in that it goes into detail of the work done by the enforcement agency, reports details of the prosecutions that have taken place, and of how the budget has been spent. In addition of course, injury, deaths and illness caused by work is reported.
The key statistics of the 12 months April 2022 to March 2023 in terms of workplaces are: 10 fatal injuries.
-
10 fatal injuries.
-
289 major injuries.
-
2,276 over 3-days sick leave injuries.
-
2,575 total work-related injuries for the year.
The document also includes details of their H&S campaigns, including that of their Asbestos Awareness campaign aimed at trades and their staff:
'HSENI re-launched its Asbestos Campaign to encourage trades people to ‘Always Ask for the Asbestos
Register’, particularly when working on buildings constructed before the year 2000.
It also aimed to
inform duty holders of their legal duty to carry out a survey and hold an Asbestos Register available for
trades people working in their building.
The multimedia campaign was exposed almost 10 million times
with a very low cost per thousand. It is estimated that 89% of Northern Ireland adults have seen or heard
the campaign at least once. The average adult either saw or heard the campaign 5.7 times.'
You can download the report by clicking on the image top right, or by going to the Unionsafety E-Library using search term 'HSNI'.
Source: HSENI
