Resources for costing accidents

Online tools

OSHA Safety Pays programme:

The United States' OSHA Safety Pays programme, uses a company's profit margin, the average cost of an injury or illness, and an indirect cost multiplier to project the amount of sales a company would need to generate in order to cover those costs. Businesses can use this information to predict the direct and indirect impact of injuries and illnesses and the estimated sales needed to compensate for these losses.

Business Benefits pages of the HSE Webiste: http://www.hse.gov.uk/business/business-benefits.htm
‘Good practice in health and safety is good for your business’

Information and training

The occupational safety advice and information pages contain information for all types and sizes of business, in all industry sectors. RoSPA's Infocentre - its in-house library - is also packed with information. This service is free of charge for RoSPA members.

RoSPA also runs a wide variety of occupational safety training courses, scheduled or in-house, many of which can be tailored to your organisation's specific requirements. Relating specifically to costing accidents and learning from safety failure, the following courses will be of interest:

• IOSH Managing Safely 'Plus'
• Behavioural Safety Training
• Accident and Incident Investigation
• Safety representatives

RoSPA's resident health and safety experts can offer practical safety advice and pragmatic safety audit feedback as a consultancy service. We can offer tailored programmes and ongoing involvement that provide exactly the consultancy and audit service that you need and ensures you're fully compliant - and above all - safe.

And, of course, membership of RoSPA confers a wide range of benefits, including access to advice and information, discounts on training, consultancy and events, and the knowledge that there will always be help and advice to hand.

Publications

• Costs to Britain of workplace fatalities and self-reported injuries and ill health, 2010/11, Health and Safety Executive
• Health and Safety Executive, 1999. The costs to Britain of workplace accidents and work-related ill health in 1995/96, second edition, HSE Books, ISBN 0 7176 1709 2
• Perceptions of the cost implications of health and safety failures, Prepared by the Institute of Work, Health and Organisations and the Health and Safety Ergonomics Unit for the Health and Safety Executive 2005 RESEARCH REPORT 403, Published by the Health and Safety Executive11/05
• Accident investigation. The drivers, methods and outcomes. Contract Research Report 344/2001. HSE Books ISBN 0 7176 2022 0
• American Society of Safety Engineers: white paper addressing the return on investment for safety, health, and environmental (HS&E) management programs.

Economic Analysis Unit (EAU) appraisal values: www.hse.gov.uk/economics/eauappraisal.htm

"HSE's Appraisal Values are the costs to society associated with each individual case of workplace fatality, workplace injury and work-related ill health." ¹.

The EAU appraisal values can be used to "estimate the benefits of proposed measures which aim to improve occupational health and safety, and to compare such benefits with the cost of government intervention"1. The prevention of workplace accidents and work-related ill health leads to a reduction in costs to society, and the EAU appraisal values are used to inform estimates of the size of such reductions in cost.

The EAU appraisal values give the unit costs to society for four kinds of workplace accidents and ill health:

• Fatalities
• Reportable injuries
• Minor injuries
• An average case of ill health.

In all categories the overall unit cost to society of an incident is divided into its component costs:

• Human costs (non-financial)
• Financial costs
  • Net lost income
  • Insurance
  • Production disturbance
  • Health and rehabilitation
  • Admin and legal costs

Cost to society per case - average Appraisal Value estimates (20011 prices) ¹

* based on a three-year average of incidence data from 2010/11 to 2012/13.

+ based on a three-year average of incidence data from 2009/10 to 2011/12.

In 2011 HSE published an updated methodology for the calculation of aggregate costs and Appraisal Values. RR897 - The costs to Britain of workplace injuries and work-related ill health in 2006/07 - Workplace fatalities and self reports: www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr897.pdf

HSE Research

HSE undertakes and commissions economic research to inform its policies. Recent HSE economic research reports and papers can be accessed at: www.hse.gov.uk/economics/research.htm

References

1: HSE Website: www.hse.gov.uk/economics/eauappraisal.htm

RoSPA cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or completeness of any pages on linked websites.