The number of workplace deaths has declined in the last year. Provisional figures, from the Heath and Safety Executive showed that 228 people died at work last year, compared to 247 workers in the previous year.

Judith Hackitt, chair of the HSE, told the Financial Times: “While we welcome the headline decrease in overall numbers of fatalities, there is absolutely no room for complacency. Great Britain’s position among major European Union countries is in relative terms a creditable one, but none can find it acceptable that 228 people died directly as a cause of their work.”