- Recent House of Lords debate rejected the proposal for an accidental prevention minister
- HSE expert, Steve Terry, discusses why this is a huge problem for the UK
- New report reveals that half of employees are missing essential HSE training
Accidents remain one of the UK’s most preventable tragedies, yet thousands of lives are lost every year, with tens of thousands of people suffering from serious injuries due to a lack of coherent national action.
Just last month, the government released statistics on workplace safety and fatalities in the workplace. The report revealed that there were 124 deaths in the workplace between March 2024-2025.
Steve Terry, Managing Director of Astutis, one of the UK’s leading workplace health and safety training providers, urges the government to appoint a dedicated minister for accidental prevention and adopt a cross-departmental strategy.
This call comes after the recent House of Lords debate on RoSPA’s (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) National Accident Prevention Strategy proposal for an accident prevention minister, which failed to go through.
While ministers acknowledged the scale of the problem, the idea of a dedicated leader was rejected, and instead, they chose to maintain a piecemeal system thinly spread across multiple departments.
Steve Terry comments:
“This is a hugely missed opportunity, and a dangerous one. Accident prevention cuts across health, construction, transport, housing, education and more. Without clear leadership at the Cabinet level, lives will continue to be lost and families will continue to lose loved ones. Prevention shouldn’t just be an option; it’s a national imperative.”
RoSPA’s recent report Safer Lives, Stronger Nation exposed the lack of strategic focus within government, highlighting how responsibility for accident prevention is diluted across agencies, leading to gaps, duplication, and wasted opportunities.
Over 20.00 lives are lost annually due to accidents in the UK, and this figure has risen over 40% in a decade. Not only that, accidents cost the NHS millions of bed days and almost £6 billion.
Steve Terry also comments:
“The report identifies a critical issue. Accident prevention efforts are fragmented, spread unevenly across numerous government departments and agencies, none of which have clear ownership or the authority to set a unified direction.
This fragmentation inevitably results in patchy policies, gaps in action, duplication of effort, and ultimately, missed opportunities to save lives.”
The Health and Safety Executive’s 10-year strategy shows progress is possible when coordination exists, but without overarching leadership, these successes remain limited.
Terry added:
“The human, social and economic costs of accidents run into billions every year. Beyond the numbers are devastated families and lost potential. By failing to appoint a minister and publish a national strategy, the government is effectively choosing to let preventable accidents continue. That is not acceptable.”
Astutis has also released a 2025 Learner Report to showcase findings in workplace health and safety. One of the key stats that the report revealed is that 50% of employees were skipping essential HSE training due to time constraints.
For the full report, you can download it here: https://www.astutis.com/astutis-hub/news/learner-report-2025
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