HSE 2025/26 figures: Falls from height remain the most common cause of death

According to the annual figures published by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on 1 July 2026, 126 workers lost their lives in work-related accidents in Great Britain between April 2025 and March 2026. Falls from height remained the most common cause, with 31 deaths; this represents around a quarter of worker deaths. According to HSE, the figures are provisional and will be finalised in July 2027.

Accident types and sectors

According to the breakdown on the HSE statistics page, the most common types of fatal accident are:

• Falls from height: 31
• Struck by a moving vehicle: 24
• Struck by a moving object: 21
• Trapped by something collapsing or overturning: 18
• Contact with moving machinery: 10

Once again, the most deaths occurred in construction (25) and in agriculture, forestry and fishing (22), followed by manufacturing (18), transportation and storage (15) and waste and recycling (6). The fatal injury rate per 100,000 workers was reported as 0.37 on average across all sectors, compared with 8.09 in agriculture, forestry and fishing and 5.47 in waste and recycling.

Other findings

• Although workers aged 60 and over make up around 12 per cent of the workforce, around a third of deaths (40) were in this group.
• Excluding the pandemic-affected years 2019/20–2021/22, 2025/26 is, on provisional figures, the lowest number recorded in a single year. For comparison, HSE points out that 217 deaths were reported in 2005/06 and 495 in 1981.
• 104 people who were not at work also lost their lives in work-related accidents.
• The figures cover work-related accidents only; deaths from occupational diseases are not included in these numbers. HSE also reported that 2,146 people died from mesothelioma in Great Britain in 2024.
• This time, for the first time, HSE compared Great Britain with 35 other countries, including some outside Europe.

Implications for workplaces in Türkiye

The HSE data relate to Great Britain and cannot be applied directly to Türkiye. Even so, the fact that falls from height remain the most common cause of death keeps the following points on the agenda:

• Keeping risk assessments for work at height up to date and prioritising collective protection measures,
• Selecting personal fall arrest systems (harness, lanyard, self-retracting fall arrester) to suit the work and the anchor point,
• Recording pre-use checks and periodic inspections of equipment.

The details of obligations relating to work at height should be checked by your employer and your OHS professionals against current legislation in Türkiye.

For safety harnesses, lanyards and fall arresters, and their periodic inspection, you can browse the fall protection products in our catalogue and our service page.