Work-place Electrical Safety Incident Data and Statistics
United Kingdom HSE Electrical Injury and Fatality Statistics
RIDDOR
The HSE publishes annual summaries of incidents reported to them under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). The RIDKIND table provides data for work-related fatal and non-fatal injuries in Great Britain broken down by the kind of accident. The notes to the tables draw attention to the fact that non-fatal injuries are substantially under-reported. It is also known that there is markedly different reporting levels between different industrial sectors.
The following chart shows the fatal and non-fatal injuries from RIDDOR attributed to "Contact with electricity or electrical discharge". It is assumed that this accounts for the majority of instances of electric shock, but may not fully cover arc flash which could potentially fall under "Exposure to fire" or "Exposure to an explosion".
Data sources:
- Fatal: RIDKIND Table 1 Column E Number of fatal injuries to workers, filtered on "Contact with electricity or electrical discharge", last updated 20th November 2024 with 2023/24 numbers being preliminary.
- Non-Fatal: RIDKIND Table 2 Column E Total number of reported non-fatal injuries to employees, filtered on "Contact with electricity or electrical discharge", last updated 20th November 2024 with 2023/24 numbers being preliminary.
Labour Force Survey
Another source of non-fatal injury data is the Labour Force Survey. Unfortunately this does not break out electrical injuries specifically.
ESQCR
Certain safety-related electrical incidents are reportable under Regulation 31 of the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations (ESQCR). Such incidents are those that may involve the safety of those not employed by the duty holder (e.g. injuries to members of the public), major supply interruptions and domestic fatalities. The reporting only shows Fatalities, Serious Injuries and Other Events and does not break down the cause any further.
United Kingdom HSE Electrical Incident Analysis
In 2010 Bill Bates presented a conference paper he had authored analysing electrical incidents for the nine year period from January 2001 to April 2009. These incidents all occurred in part of East and South East England for which Bill was Her Majesty's Principal Specialist Inspector (Electrical Engineer) at the United Kingdom's Health and Safety Executive (the HSE). The paper was titled "Electrical Safety - a perspective based on incidents".
In total there were 162 major incidents investigated which resulted in:
- 38 deaths
- 97 serious injuries
- 32 dangerous occurences
In the paper Bill indicates that these represent around a fifth of the electricity-related investigations undertaken by the HSE across the country.
Bill analysed each incident and was able to attribute what the specific type of incident was, as well as a cause. Whilst electric shocks (from overhead cables, fixed installations and equipment) were the most common incident type, he drew attention in the article to arc flash saying:
It is interesting to note the number [of] flashovers leading to serious burn injuries investigated, many of which were to experienced electrical workers.
To provide a summary of the information (see the paper for the full numbers) we have grouped the incidents by the primary type, based on a description of the consequences:
- Electric Shock - the primary type for Overhead Line Contact, Shock from LV Fixed Installation and Shock from Equipment
- Arc Flash - the primary type for Supply Cable Damage, Supply Switchgear Failure, Flashover on LV Switchgear and Equipment and Disruptive Equipment Failure
- Other - incidents attributed to machinery and control or those incidents determined not to be electrical-related after investigation
| Primary Incident Type | Number of Fatalities | % of Total Fatalities | Number of Serious Injuries | % of Total Serious Injuries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electric Shock | 22 | 57% | 51 | 53% |
| Arc Flash | 3 | 8% | 36 | 37% |
| Other | 13 | 34% | 10 | 10% |
The data here shows that Electric Shock is the leading cause of both fatal and serious injuries. Whilst the number of fatal arc flash incidents is relatively low, the number of serious injuries caused by arc flash is much higher and closer to Electric Shock.
United Kingdom HSE Electrical Safety Prosecutions
Another source of incident data comes from prosecutions. Following an investigation, the HSE may choose to prosecute one or more involved parties for breaches of Regulation. This sometimes results in more detailed information being made available about the incident. We have summarised the key details from those prosections which are related to electrical incidents.
This section is currently still under development. The HSE remove the press releases posted on their website after a time so links later on are via the Internet Archive which takes snapshots of web pages.
2024 Prosecutions
| HSE Link | Description | Incident Date | Prosecution Date | Hazard | Outcome | Fine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View | A pylon worker received a 33kV electric shock whilst working on a live pylon in Wales. His company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 whilst the pylon operator, National Grid Electricity Distribution (South Wales) Plc pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 14 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. | 3rd December 2020 | 5th September 2024 | Electric Shock | Serious Injury | £80,000 £3.2 million |
| View | A delivery driver using a crane to unload materials from a lorry was electrocuted when the crane arm came into contact with an 11kV overhead power line. The company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. | 16th November 2020 | 20th June 2024 | Electric Shock | Fatality | £30,000 |
| View | A worker using a crowbar to move live electrical cables whilst working at height suffered serious injuries after an arc flash occured knocking him out of the elevated platform to the ground. The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. | 14th July 2021 | 10th May 2024 | Arc Flash | Serious Injury | £200,000 |
| View | A worker using a concrete breaker to excavate ground as part of a fence repair struck a live underground cable. The resulting arc flash resulted in burn injuries to their face. The employer, a social housing company, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 16(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. | 10th January 2023 | 24th April 2024 | Arc Flash | Serious Injury | £528,000 |
| View | A lorry drive suffered third degree burns after the tipper and grab arm on his lorry struck a live 11kV overhead power line. The driver exited the vehicle and received a shock as his feet touched the ground whilst he was still holding the door handle. The employer, a horticulture company, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. | Unknown 2023 | 28th March 2024 | Electric Shock | Serious Injury | £3,000 |
| View | A cable jointer suffered serious burns after an arc flash took place on a switchgear cubicle adjacent to the one he was working on. The construction company, who had sub-contracted the cable jointing company, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. | 12th May 2020 | 14th March 2024 | Arc Flash | Serious Injury | £40,000 |
| View | A scaffolder suffered an electric shock when a scaffolding pole he was carrying struck a live 11kV overhead power line. He received electric burns to both hands and had other injuries due to a fall. The scaffolding company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The director of the scaffolding company was also found guilty and given a suspended prison sentence. | 29th November 2021 | 15th January 2024 | Electric Shock | Serious Injury | £50,000 |
2023 Prosecutions
| HSE Link | Description | Incident Date | Prosecution Date | Hazard | Outcome | Fine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View | A maintenance engineer was electrocuted while reparing a food waste disposal unit in a hospital. The machine was not protected by an earth wire and did not have an RCD fitted at the supply. Two companies involved were found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The equipment manufacturer pleaded guilty to breaching Section 6(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. | 13th December 2017 | 3rd October 2023 | Electric Shock | Fatality | £600,000 |
| View | A plant hire HGV driver died after being electrocuted when his tipper trip struck an 11kV overhead line on farmland. The farm's Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) was found guilty of breaching Regulations 3(1) and 4(3) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. | 13th May 2021 | 17th August 2023 | Electric Shock | Fatality | £60,000 |
| View | An LGV driver died after being electrocuted when his tipper trip struck an overhead line near the company's onsite washing facility. The company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(3) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. | 31st December 2022 | 4th July 2023 | Electric Shock | Fatality | £150,000 |
| View | Car valeting company failed to comply with enforcement notices and put workers at risk of electrocution. The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – for failing to comply with an Improvement Notice, Section 33(1)(g) and section 1(1) of the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. | 22nd March 2022 | 16th May 2023 | Electric Shock | None | £6,000 |
| View | An asbestos surveyor died after suffering an arc flash whilst inspecting a supposedly de-energised electrical panel. The company pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) and Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. | 10th December 2020 | 18th January 2023 | Arc Flash | Fatality | £80,000 |
SafetyOn Notifications and Alert
SafetyOn is the health and safety organisation for the onshore wind sector in the United Kingdom. They work in partnership with the Energy Institute and provide guidance on health and safety topics, as well as gathering incident data and sharing notifications.
The following table contains electrical incidents shared by SafetyOn.
| SafetyOn Link | Description | Latest Update | Hazard |
|---|---|---|---|
| View | During service work being undertaken on a Wind Turbine Generator a metal lockout device falls into a convertor cabinet causing an arc flash. | 29th May 2024 | Arc Flash |
| View | During planned works to replace the main breaker on a WTG, an arc flash occured. Investigation shows this may have happened due to a cross-boundary isolation failure at the upstream low voltage circuit breaker located in the transformer kiosk. | 14th December 2023 | Arc Flash |
| View | A serious arc flash incident occured whilst a faulty wind turbine 690V circuit breaker was being replaced. It is believed safe systems of work, including electrical isolations were in use. The technician received burn injuries. | 19th October 2023 | Arc Flash |
| View | Whilst undertaking fault finding in the hub spinner area a technician received an electric shock due to some nearby cables/equipment remaining live and powered by UPS. Although a Safe System of Work was in place it did not account adequately for the hazard from nearby live equipment. | 5th April 2023 | Electric Shock |
| View | Whilst backfilling cable trenches the arm of an excavator came into contact with a live overhead 11kV powerline. Control measures to prevent a cable strike had been removed to allow the backfilling work to be completed. The excavator was damaged and supply to the adjacent wind farm was interuppted. | 28th February 2023 | Arc Flash |
| View | An arc flash occured within a switchgear cabinet resulting in a High Voltage trip a T-stop. No personnel were within the turbine when the fault occured but there was extensive equipment damage. | 28th February 2023 | Arc Flash |
| View | An arc flash occured in a Battery Management System unit when an engineer disconnected live terminals without proving dead or using protective covers. | 21st December 2022 | Arc Flash |
| View | A high voltage arc flash occured on a wind farm in northern Scotland resulting in serious injuries. Work was being completed on a Pre-Insertion Resistor with the injured party inadvertently working on energised equipment. A HSE investigation took place. | 23rd June 2020 | Arc Flash |