Minister helps launch HSE's new Health and Work Strategy
The Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, Penny Mordaunt MP has pledged her support for a new strategy for health in Britain’s workplaces.
The Heath and Work strategy engagement is launched at a time when stress and musculoskeletal disorders account for around 80 percent of all working time lost due to illness.
Statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which is opening the conversation and publishing the strategy, show that there are around 12,000 deaths each year from occupational lung diseases, accounting for 90 percent of estimated deaths related to past exposures at work.
Last year, work related illness affected around 1.3 million workers and nearly 26 million working days were lost because of it. The economic costs are stark – totalling over £9 billion per year for new cases alone – not including ongoing costs from working conditions of the past.
With an increasing emphasis on health issues in recent years, it is estimated that a quarter of all HSE enforcement notices issued to duty-holders concern issues around health in the workplace.
An online page has been developed, allowing stakeholders and public to view and download the strategy, and to post views and comments as part of the engagement process to provide information about their own contributions to improving health at work.
