The National Specialist Contractors Council’s annual survey of member organisations showed that specialists perform better than the construction industry average, on the whole, but slipped up last year.
In the latest annual survey covering almost 100,000 operatives, the NSCC fatal injury rate was 1.0 per 100,000 workers in 2010/11, compared to 0.6 in 2009/10. However, it was still better than the whole industry rate of 2.3 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers.
The major injury rate per 100,000 workers for specialist contractors slid from 163.5 in 2009/10 to 168.8 in 2010/11. Industry rate was 173.2, ccording to Health & Safety Executive figures.
The incidence of injuries requiring three or more days off work was 639.8 per 100,000 for specialist contractors in 2010/11, down from 524.9 the previous year. The HSE’s industry rate in this category is just 360.5, but refers only to directly employed workers.
Despite the worsening accident rate last year, over the last eight years the NSCC fatality rate has fallen by 72%, the major injury rate by 52%, and the over 3-day rate by 47%.
NSCC chief executive Suzannah Nichol said: “During a recession, the focus on health and safety can become a victim of cost cutting; however, these results from over 2,500 NSCC members demonstrate the continued priority of the specialist sector towards protecting the workforce. The collation of accident information is a requirement of NSCC membership and we will continue to work with all of our member organisations in 2011/12 to improve on the success of this survey.”
From 6 April 2012 the HSE is extending the period before an injury needs to be reported under RIDDOR from over three to over seven days and the NSCC accident survey for 2012/13 will be updated accordingly.
The full survey can be viewed via this link here.
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