Health & Safety Report 2016

HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT 2016

4.1.1 Personal Injuries and Fatalities Despite being a major hazard industry, the UK offshore oil and gas sector has a relatively low personal injury rate in comparison to many other sectors in the UK and it is below the UK’s all industries’ average (see figures below and opposite). The non-fatal injury rate is based on the over-seven-day and specified injury rate as well as population figures reported in the HSE’s annual Offshore Statistics and Regulatory Activity Report . The offshore population figures are taken from the Vantage Personnel On Board (POB) tracking system, while the figures for other industries come from the UK’s Annual Population Survey 7 that is based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 8 . The UK offshore oil and gas sector’s three-year average non-fatal injury rate per 100,000 workers is almost one third that of the construction industry (see Figure 4 below). The three-year rolling average for the offshore sector, meanwhile, is on a continuous downward trend, plateauing off over the last two reporting periods as illustrated opposite. The rate has fallen by 24 per cent from 569 in 2008 to 430 in 2015, compared to the construction industry, for example, which has seen an increase in the same period.

Favourable performance compared to other sectors reflects well on the industry’s unstinting efforts to manage hazards and continually improve safety performance, underpinned by a robust and effective regulatory regime.

Figure 4: The Three-Year Average (2012 to 2015) Non-Fatal Injury Rate by UK Industry Sector per 100,000 Workers

Construction

1,200

Transport/Storage

1,010

Manufacturing

880

Health/Social Work

770

Wholesale/Retail

650

Public Admin

640

Education

530

Offshore Oil and Gas

430

Finance/Business

250

All Industries

650

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

Number of Injuries

Source: The Health and Safety Executive

7 See www.nomisweb.co.uk/articles/873.aspx 8 See http://bit.ly/1YubdYA

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