By Emma Thomas, Director of Trackplot

Outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable to environmental risks including difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions. They are also more likely to undertake high risk tasks such as operating heavy machinery, working with livestock, wild animals or by water. Unfortunately, the Health and Safety Executive’s latest statistics show that outdoor industries have the highest fatality rates and highlights the work still to be done to prevent workplace accidents.

Fatalities:

  • 138 workers were killed in work-related accidents.
  • 36% of fatal injuries were sustained by self-employed people even though they only made up 15% of the workforce.
  • In the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector there were 23 fatalities and 65% were to self-employed workers which is higher than any other industry.
  • 87 members of the public were also killed in work-related accidents.

Furthermore, in agriculture, forestry and fishing, an estimated 8,000 workers reported sustaining a non-fatal workplace injury (average 2019-2024). This rate is statistically significantly higher than that for workers across all industries (1.7%).

The total cost of injury and work-related ill health in the sector is £21.5 billion. This includes both financial (in terms of lost output and healthcare costs) and non-financial (the monetary valuation of the human cost of injury and illness in terms of loss of quality of life and, for fatalities, loss of life).

Lone workers are exposed to significant risk simply because they are working unsupervised and without colleagues. If a lone worker does have an accident of any severity, this could potentially be compounded by them being alone.

Trackplot was established in 2009 to protect agricultural lone workers. The system was developed in response to a tragic accident in the Scottish Borders where a young farm worker suffered a broken leg, alone, and later died from the effects of hypothermia.

Trackplot enables workers to keep in touch wherever they are to prevent fatalities happening. Trackplot’s complete lone worker monitoring service offers satellite and mobile network-based options depending on your location. The Trackplot Portal, our interactive online platform, uses Ordnance Survey mapping, real-time weather warnings and environmental data to help users anticipate risks and prevent problems. It also features a flexible notification system to provide managers with automatic alerts and an SOS Alarm Receiving Centre to handle emergency SOS alerts.

It does not need mobile phone reception to work, therefore providing a critical communication aid for workers and teams in locations with poor mobile connectivity.

As an employer your duty of care means you must protect your employees, freelancers and others from getting hurt or ill through work. Considering all your different worker types is important. If you have a contractor working for you, then both you and the contractor will have duties under health and safety law. This also applies when a contractor employs subcontractors.

Looking after Health and Safety is a primary concern for everyone. Remember prevention and compliance is easier to manage than the consequences if you breach the law.

For more information on Trackplot, visit trackplot.com

Sources: HSE reports ‘Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2024’ and “Agriculture, forestry and fishing statistics in Great Britain, 2024”.