The latest provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that 126 workers lost their lives in work-related incidents across Great Britain during 2025/26 – the lowest annual total recorded outside the pandemic years. While the figures reflect long-term improvements in workplace safety, they also highlight a continuing challenge: falls from height remain the leading cause of fatal workplace injuries.
Of the 126 worker fatalities recorded, 31 were the result of falls from height, accounting for around a quarter of all fatal workplace incidents. Construction also remained one of the highest-risk sectors, with 25 worker fatalities during the year.
For SAEMA, these statistics are a timely reminder that improving safety is an ongoing process rather than a finished job.
Suspended access systems play a vital role in enabling the inspection, maintenance and cleaning of modern buildings. Ensuring those systems are designed, installed, inspected and operated safely depends on more than equipment alone—it requires competent people, effective planning and robust management throughout the life of a building.
This is why SAEMA continues to promote recognised training, technical guidance and industry best practice for everyone involved with suspended access systems, from operatives and installers to duty holders and facilities managers.
The HSE figures also place Great Britain among the safest countries in the world in terms of workplace fatal injury rates—a position achieved through decades of collaboration between industry, regulators and professional bodies. Maintaining that progress will depend on continuing to invest in competence, embrace innovation and ensure that safety remains central to every decision involving work at height.
Every fatality represents a person who never returned home from work.
While the latest figures demonstrate that the industry is moving in the right direction, they also reinforce an important message: there is no room for complacency. By continuing to raise standards, share knowledge and invest in competence, the industry can help ensure that everyone working at height returns home safely at the end of every working day.