Fewer people in Scotland are dying, being seriously injured or made ill through their work, according to figures released by the Health and Safety Executive.
There were 2548 serious workplace injuries recorded in Scotland last year, compared to 2688 in 2008-9, and 23 deaths three fewer than in the previous year.
The estimated number of people suffering from work-related illnesses fell from 104,000 in 2008-9 to 97,000 last year.
Paul Stollard, regional director for Scotland, said, “Employers have a legal duty to protect their employees. Health and safety needs to be at the very heart of the business and not seen as an add-on, tick-box exercise at best or an unnecessary burden at worst.”
Across Scotland, England and Wales, 28.5 million working days (equivalent to 1.2 days per worker) were lost to injury and ill health last year compared with 29.3 million in 2008-9.
In 2009-10, an estimated 2.5 million working days were lost in Scotland to workplace injury and work-related ill health, an average annual loss of 1.2 days per worker.
National workplace fatal injuries fell from 179 in 2008-9 to a record low of 152 in 2009-10, and there was a reduction of more than 11,000 in the number of workplace injuries classified as serious or incurring more than three days’ absence from work.
Major injuries at work have fallen nationally since 2000, and this trend continued last year with 27,096 workers reported as being injured in 2009-10 (91.0 per 100,000) compared with 29,000 in 2008-9 (95.2 per 100,000).
The number of people estimated to be suffering from work-related ill health in 2009-10 was 1.3 million, while almost 1.2 million fewer working days were lost to ill health a total of 23.4 million.