The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has published its annual Health and Safety Statistics for 2023/24, revealing trends in injury and illness among UK Armed Forces personnel, MOD civilian employees, and other civilians under its duty of care.
This year’s report features a revised layout and updated tables, designed to provide greater clarity about the causes and severity of incidents affecting Defence personnel.
Enhanced Reporting Systems
The introduction of the MySafety (DURALS) system in January 2022 has improved the reporting of health and safety incidents. This user-friendly platform has encouraged greater reporting, contributing to an apparent rise in recorded incidents. However, the MOD notes that some underreporting persists, which may limit the data’s completeness.
To better meet user needs, the MOD has made changes to this year’s report, focusing on the types of activities causing injuries and their severity. Duplication between tables has been reduced, and supplementary tables have been reorganised to provide clearer insights.
These statistics say the MOD, will inform ongoing efforts to strengthen safety practices across all areas of Defence operations, aligned with the Armed Forces Covenant and health and safety regulations.
Rising Injury Rates
The report highlights a significant rise in injury rates among UK Armed Forces personnel, increasing from 43 per 1,000 in 2019/20 to 69 per 1,000 in 2023/24. Training and exercises remain the most common cause of injuries, accounting for 61% of those reported.
Untrained personnel were identified as being at greater risk, experiencing significantly higher injury rates compared to their trained counterparts.
Near Misses and Dangerous Occurrences
The MOD recorded 10,336 near misses in 2023/24, representing 39% of all reported health and safety incidents. Near misses are defined as events with the potential to cause harm but avoided through timely intervention or circumstance.
Additionally, 186 dangerous occurrences, such as adverse events meeting RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) criteria, were reported. Most of these occurred during routine duties.
Safety-Related Fatalities
Three safety-related or potentially safety-related fatalities were recorded in 2023/24, contributing to a five-year total of 18 such deaths. Land transport accidents and incidents during personal training were identified as the primary causes.
MOD civilian employees accounted for 15% of all reported incidents in 2023/24. Industrial workers experienced a significantly higher injury rate (38 per 1,000) compared to non-industrial staff (12 per 1,000).
Routine duties were the most common cause of injuries among civilians. You can read the report here.
Many of these injuries will result in medical gradings of unfit for all operations or fit for only certain operations/certain locations. Hopefully we will have no more allegations of malingering without looking at the details.
There will always be allegations, medical confidentiality and the stigma of non visible injuries will always ensure that. But hopefully it will be less common.
For want of lighting a huge bonfire, I wonder if the push for women in Combat Arms and more women in general has any influence on these figures. Women aren’t typically as robust as men (IMO) and they have their own particular set of health issues (i.e. pregnancy) that could knock them out of the game for days, weeks or months. They might effect their ability to be a solider, but certainly would impact their ability to soldier.
Correction, I meant to say they might NOT effect their ability to be a soldier.
Not really, a far larger impact is a cultural change from an emphasis on hiding your injuries and “grizzing it out” that was the attitude when Graham and me joined, to a more proactive “let’s get this nipped early and avoid bigger issues further down the line.”
Also Pregnancy and other Ob\gyn issues would not be recorded as “injuries”
The report is on injury and illness. I was thinking Pregnancy and other Ob\gyn issues would be recorded as that.
Work them to the bone then deploy them and expect them to be sub Olympic level athletes on top of all this for a tesco managers salary. Who could have seen this coming with no redundancy for troop numbers baked in…..
Ex-Mil, I doubt many junior ranks have a salary as good as a Tesco Managers salary!
Children are less active these days, they play less outdoors which strengthens bones, mum and dad taxi as well rather then bikes.
IMO other then genuine injuries, there are mary reasons contributing to the numbers. But mostly blaggers
i think morale plays a massive part under paid, under funded, under equiped, over worked/deployed stretched to the limits and treated like crap by those in charge as they chase the next rank. I believe this is a massive cause for alot of soldiers now just collecting a pay check with no interest anymore as they don’t want to deploy because of various personal reasons which I’ve heard include side jobs and family commitments or deploying for a few extra pennies a day just to pay it back in tax just not worth the time away, so they blag the injuries to get out of going. This is just my opinion from what I’ve seen and heard havingbspoke to soldiers from varying ranks and trades
A significant number of these are fake or exaggerated cases – hear me out.
Lack of manpower puts too much pressure on the remaining personnel. Nobody with a family wants to deploy away every two minutes, and being downgraded is the only way to avoid that. I know plenty of good people who have either toyed with the idea of this, or actually done it.
I refuse to think less of them for it, too. If the MOD is missing recruitment goals, that means you’re paying less people a wage than you expected – so pay the people you DO have more for the persistent battering they are taking. At least then there would be some incentive to stay, and personnel might one day find themselves outside of the near-poverty bracket.
Personnel at Cyprus have just found out they’re now eligible to be deployed abroad – FROM CYPRUS. So now, you move to Cyprus with your family, only to then abandon them in a foreign country while you deploy elsewhere for months on end. Next to NO financial incentive while this is happening, making it a near impossible conversation to have with your spouse.
Pay an acceptable wage, or ask an acceptable workload. You can’t have your cake and eat it.