The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its annual statistics on work-related injuries and work-related ill health, indicating a trend toward increasing mental health issues in the workplace.
Figures from the report confirm that, of 1.8 million workers suffering from work-related ill-health, over half (51%) of those cases are down to work-related stress, depression or anxiety. In real terms, that’s 914,000 workers.
Ever since the Coronavirus pandemic, the number of cases has been rising, so that the current rate is 52% higher than it was before Coronavirus in 2019.
This doesn’t just affect the hundreds of thousands of workers suffering from the effects. Businesses lost 17 million working days in 2021/22 due to mental ill health. That’s over half of all working days lost due to work-related ill health, reported as 30.8 million working days.
Ill-health in general cost the UK £11.2 billion in 2019/20, and that’s without the costs of long-latency illnesses like cancer. The major cause of ill health continues to be musculoskeletal disorders, which alone account for 7.3 million working days lost.
The pandemic still looms large in the statistics. There were 123,000 cases of work-related COVID-19 recorded in 2021/22, up 32% from the 2020/21 report. Of the 1.8 million who suffered from a work-related illness, the reports estimates around 585,000 who believe their condition was caused or made worse by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Around a quarter of these workers were from the healthcare and social work sectors.
Sarah Albon, the HSE’s Chief Executive, pointed to a greater need for employers to focus on workers’ wellbeing:
“Stress and poor mental health is the number one cause of work-related ill health. The effects of stress, depression, and anxiety can have a significant impact on an employee’s life and on their ability to perform their best at work. Britain is one of the safest places in the world to work but we need all employers to do more and take seriously their responsibilities to support good mental health at work.”
If you have questions on supporting positive mental health at work, visit BrAInbox today where you can find answers to questions like Do employers have to risk assess stress at work?
Read more from the latest BrAInbox Business News update:
HMRC advisory fuel rates for company car users from 1 December 2022
HMRC hands out £8m in fines for tax evaders
