What’s going on behind these figures?
1.) Ill health is rising – and it’s now the dominant safety challenge
What the data shows
Work-related ill health has increased year-on-year from 1.7 million to 1.9 million people, underscoring that health risk is now the main cause of workplace harm.
What’s driving it?
The risk landscape has widened: psychosocial strain, long-term MSD exposure, fatigue, and chronic conditions are rising alongside classic hazards.
Many organisations still treat health risks as secondary to ‘safety,’ so they’re harder to spot early and slower to control.
Health issues accumulate quietly over time, meaning lag indicators only show the problem once harm is already done.
Key takeaway and why it matters to you
If your system is built mainly around accidents, you’re managing yesterday’s risk profile. Health risk control now needs to have the same level of priority as safety risk control – with clear ownership, leading indicators, and repeatable controls.
What high-performing teams do
They treat health risks as operational risks, auditing, reporting, and reviewing them continuously, not annually.
How a digital solution such as Notify helps
Notify makes health risks visible earlier by linking events, audits, and actions into a single evidence trail, so chronic issues don’t sit in separate spreadsheets or get missed.
2.) Mental health is the biggest single driver of harm
What the data shows
Stress, depression, and anxiety account for around half of all ill-health cases (964,000 people), and this is rising year-on-year.
What’s driving it?
Pressure is more complex than ‘too much work’. Role ambiguity, lack of control, poor change management, and interpersonal conflict are common root causes.
Managers often aren’t trained to detect or record psychosocial risk early.
Reporting routes for mental health concerns can feel unclear, unsafe, or informal – so early indicators get lost.
Key takeaway and why it matters to you
Mental health risk is now a regulatory and reputational issue, not just a wellbeing initiative. If you aren’t assessing psychosocial hazards like physical ones, you’re exposed.
What high-performing teams do
They normalise psychosocial risk reporting, train managers to recognise patterns early, and track these risks with the same level of importance as traditional hazards.
How a digital solution such as Notify helps
With Notify, teams can capture psychosocial hazards and stress-related near misses quickly, track follow-up actions, and use Spark insights to summarise themes for leaders – without hours upon hours of manual admin.
3.) Non-fatal injuries are trending the wrong way
What the data shows
Self-reported injuries rose from 604,000 to 680,000, with familiar hazards still dominating: slips, trips, and falls (30%), manual handling (17%), and being struck by a moving object (10%).
What’s driving it?
‘Everyday hazards’ persist because they’re familiar – and familiarity breeds complacency.
Controls often exist on paper, but drift in reality (e.g., housekeeping gaps, rushed processes, inconsistent supervision).
Weak leading indicators mean repeat causes aren’t caught early enough.
Key takeaway and why it matters to you
These aren’t ‘unavoidable basics.’ If injury drivers haven’t shifted in 10 years, the problem isn’t awareness; it’s control consistency and action follow-through.
What high-performing teams do
They focus on leading indicators: near misses, hazards, unsafe conditions, and audit findings, and close out corrective actions fast to stop repeat injuries.
How a digital solution such as Notify helps
Mobile-first event reporting makes it easy for frontline teams to log hazards in seconds, while dashboards show repeat causes and trigger actions before injuries happen.
4.) The productivity hit is huge – and growing
What the data shows
40.1 million working days lost to ill health and injury are a major operational drain.
What’s driving it?
Lost working days are being driven mainly by ill health. Chronic health risks often build quietly over time, then result in long absences once they surface.
Response speed is often too slow: issues are spotted late, actions stay open, and controls aren’t checked against real, day-to-day conditions.
Safety teams spend too much time on admin, reconciling data instead of preventing harm.
Key takeaway and why it matters to you
Lost days are a board-level signal. This isn’t just about compliance, it’s about capacity, resilience, and performance. The faster you learn and act, the fewer days you lose.
What high-performing teams do
They shorten the ‘learning loop’: report → investigate → act → resolve. And they track how quickly that loop runs.
How a digital solution such as Notify helps
Notify cuts admin and speeds up the loop through real-time action tracking, automated escalation, and Spark summaries – helping teams intervene earlier and freeing up time for prevention.
5.) Some sectors remain consistently higher risk
What the data shows
Fatalities remain highest in industries like agriculture, construction, and waste and recycling. Non-fatal injuries are highest in accommodation and food services, construction, and transportation and storage. Meanwhile, health and social care, education, and public administration see the highest rates of work-related stress, depression, and MSDs.
What’s driving it?
Risk profiles vary by workforce type, environment, and operational tempo (pace and intensity of work).
Multi-site or dispersed workforces struggle with consistent standards and visibility.
‘One-size-fits-all’ controls rarely match real operational risk.
Key takeaway and why it matters to you
Benchmarking against national averages is useful – but your controls must be sector-specific, site-specific, and task-specific. The goal is targeted control, not generic compliance.
What high-performing teams do
They break risk down by site and activity, track sector-relevant leading indicators, and enforce consistent reporting across locations.
How a digital solution such as Notify helps
Notify standardises audits and reporting across sites while still allowing local tailoring, giving leaders a single, comparable view of risk hotspots and control effectiveness.
What Notify customers achieved in 2025
Across the Notify platform this year, hundreds of customers used digital safety processes at scale to drive safety engagement, improve visibility, speed up response, reduce repeat issues, and crucially, use data and insight to proactively reduce risk. Here’s what that looked like:
107,320 actions recorded
Managing actions digitally in Notify has helped teams make sure the right corrective actions are assigned to the right people, tracked to completion, escalated when deadlines slip, and fully evidenced with a clear, searchable audit trail.
767,353 audits completed
Completing audits in Notify has standardised how checks are carried out across sites and teams, improved accuracy through guided digital forms, and given leaders real-time assurance dashboards instead of waiting for paperwork to catch up.
256,784 safety events logged
Logging events through mobile-first reporting has made it quick and easy for frontline teams to report hazards, near misses, and incidents in seconds, leading to earlier interventions and learning, faster investigations, and fewer repeat issues.
6,503 risk assessments completed
Doing risk assessments digitally has created a central, always-up-to-date view of organisational risk, simplified review and approval workflows, and ensured people can read, sign, and access the latest assessments when and where they need them.
1,093 Notify Spark insights generated
Using Spark to analyse safety data has reduced manual admin, whilst generating consistent and accurate summaries, safety briefings, toolbox talks and more, so safety teams can focus effort where it will make the biggest difference.
Preparing for 2026: three actions to take now – and how
1. Modernise your risk assessments for emerging and real-world pressures
Risk assessments can’t be treated as a once-a-year exercise. To stay effective, they need to be living documents that reflect how work is actually being done today, and how your risk profile is evolving. That means reviewing them whenever processes, environments, equipment, or workforce pressures change, and making sure they capture not only traditional physical hazards, but also the newer, fast-growing risks shaping exposure across UK workplaces. These may include:
- Psychosocial risks (e.g., workload, role clarity, bullying, harassment, lone working)
- Climate and environmental factors (e.g., heat, extreme weather, air quality)
- Technology-driven hazards (e.g., automation interfaces, AI-supported workflows, remote monitoring)
How: build a rolling review calendar, link assessments to live events and changes on site, and require workforce sign-off whenever tasks or environments shift. And make sure you are avoiding these common risk assessment mistakes.
2. Prioritise mental health training for managers and staff
With stress, depression, and anxiety now making up around half of all work-related ill health, prevention has to go beyond policies alone. Training equips managers to spot early warning signs, hold confident conversations, and make reasonable adjustments before issues escalate. It also gives employees practical tools to manage pressure and speak up sooner.
How:
- Train managers to recognise, respond to, and record psychosocial risk
- Include mental health in inductions and refresher training, just like manual handling or working at height
- Back training with clear reporting routes and regular check-ins, so support isn’t a one-off exercise
- Provide a safe way for your workforce to report how they are feeling
3. Invest in digital tools for incident reporting and safety monitoring
You can’t act on what you don’t see. The fastest way to reduce repeat incidents is to make reporting effortless for the frontline, then turn that information into action. Digital reporting removes friction, improves consistency, and gives you real-time visibility across sites.
How:
- Enable mobile/QR code reporting (with offline capabilities) so hazards and near misses take seconds to log
- Standardise incident categories and data entry via dropdowns so reports are clear, consistent, and actionable
- Use dashboards and automated insight to spot repeat causes and trends (e.g., trips, manual handling, or moving-object incidents) and trigger corrective actions quickly
If you’re looking to make the switch to a digital health and safety management platform in 2026 but aren’t sure where to start, our short online course walks you through the whole process – from building your wish list and researching platforms, to influencing stakeholders, navigating procurement, implementing the system, and engaging end users.
Final thoughts
The data for 2025 shows that workplace safety is no longer just about preventing accidents – but about preventing harm in every form.
The continuing rise in ill health, paired with persistent ‘everyday injury’ causes like falls, manual handling, and moving objects, tells us the same thing we hear daily from customers:
- Safety teams need stronger leading indicators, not just lagging data
- Corrective actions must be closed out faster and more consistently
- Frontline engagement has to be easier to achieve and sustain
- Organisations need tools that turn high volumes of safety data into clear and practical priorities
This is exactly where digital tools are helping – empowering teams to spot risks earlier, act faster, and prove that controls are working.
If you want to strengthen your organisation’s approach to health and safety, reduce risk proactively, and build a safety culture that’s backed by data, book a demo with Notify today.