According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), over 60,000 workers sustained non-fatal workplace injuries last year. Additionally, nearly a million employees suffered from work-related stress or anxiety. These workplace injuries alone cost the UK economy an estimated £7.7 billion annually.
Responding to the 2024 Safety Culture Maturity Report, specialist Health and Safety lawyer, Dr. Simon Joyston-Bechal of Turnstone Law, highlights a significant issue. He states, “Poor understanding in the Boardroom concerning directors’ personal criminal law obligations is still letting down many organisations. We can expect renewed vigour on enforcement by the Health & Safety Executive under the new Government; so there has never been a more important time for directors to understand that they can be personally criminally prosecuted with potential jail sentences if they are not as proactive as would be expected for someone in their role.”
The Safe365 report assessed data across 10 key Health & Safety modules, including data collection, manager knowledge, worker and contractor engagement, and emergency preparedness. Findings revealed significant gaps, particularly in emergency preparedness among SMEs, which were 17% less prepared than their larger counterparts.
Performance maturity also varied by industry. IT and Media (41%), Arts and Recreation (42%), and Public Service (42%) scored the lowest. In contrast, industries such as Mining (57%), Utilities (56%), and Professional Services (55%) demonstrated higher maturity levels.
Nathan Hight, Co-Founder of Safe365, emphasizes the need for boardroom-level discussions on Health & Safety. “Although many business leaders understand Health & Safety governance and legal obligations, our research shows there’s still work to do to ensure Health & Safety is a boardroom-level conversation. To protect UK workers, organisations need to stop ticking Health & Safety boxes and instead come together to drive nationwide improvements to safety and risk management in the workplace.”
Jason Anker MBE, Chairman & Director of Anker & Marsh, underscores the human cost of inadequate safety measures. Anker, who suffered life-changing spinal injuries in a workplace accident, advocates for a cultural shift in safety practices. “As employees, we trust that the right workplace environments are in place to keep us safe, but in most cases—and as this research proves—processes and procedures are not enough. We need safety to be a part of workplace culture—and for this culture to start at the very top. This would help protect myself and the 60,000 other UK employees a year that fall victim to workplace accidents and injuries.”
The full Safety Culture Maturity Report can be accessed here.
About Safe365
Safe365 is a technology company dedicated to ensuring that 100 million workers operate in proactively managed risk environments. Designed to support safety leaders in transforming workplace safety cultures, Safe365 shifts the perspective on how companies view, evaluate, and quantify risk. This approach promotes management-led, rather than compliance-led, proactive safety leadership. Using data and insights, Safe365 helps companies measure, prioritize, and demonstrate the impact of various elements required to achieve a robust safety culture. This alignment fosters company-wide engagement in continual improvement.
About the Research
The Safety Culture Maturity Report is based on data from a sample of 2,672 organisations using Safe365 in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Each organisation is evaluated on 82 elements across 10 modules, creating an overall Safety Culture Maturity Index. The modules include Culture and Behaviours, Health & Safety Data Collection, Manager Knowledge, and Emergency Preparedness.
