Farm Safety Week 2022

This week is the tenth anniversary of Farm Safety Week. Over the last decade, the campaign has now gathered over 400 partners and is active is five countries. The main aim of Farm Safety Week has always been to raise awareness of the industry’s persistently poor safety record and highlight what is being done to address it.

Ten years on, safety has been gradually improving in some areas, however behavioural change moves slow. The latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that there were 22 work-related farm deaths between April 2021 and March 2022, down from 41 deaths the previous year. There is still much to be done in order to reduce these tragedies.

The core objectives of Farm Safety Week are to raise awareness of the importance of working safely in farming - the industry with the poorest safety record of any occupation in the UK & Ireland. Promoting good safety practices and sharing positive stories about the use of innovation and education to improving safety, whilst engaging the farming community to challenge and change attitudes and behaviours and make our farms safer places to live and work. In the long term, the aim is to encourage everyone working in the industry to prioritise their physical and mental wellbeing each and every day, and not just during Farm Safety Week.

CLA President, Mark Tufnell, says: "As Farm Safety week enters its tenth year, it remains to be as important for the industry as ever. Despite the recent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures showing that work-related deaths on farms in the last year have almost halved, farming remains to be the most dangerous sector in terms of fatalities per 100,000 people in the workplace.

"It is time for policy makers, regulators and manufacturers to work together as much as possible to ensure that these tragic statistics remain in decline year on year."

CLA Vice President and Chair of the Farm Safety Partnership, Gavin Lane, adds: "The agricultural sector remains the most dangerous industry to be working in across the UK for fatalities.

"The new figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that there is still much more work that needs to be done to improve the industry's safety record.

"The theme of Farm Safety Week this year is “Let’s Make Change Now”. Sadly, as the agricultural sector continues to have the highest death rate per 100,000 workers, this theme really needs to start delivering.

"It is on policy makers, regulators and manufacturers to take action and keep those terrible statistics falling further."

Use the hashtag #FarmSafetyWeek to follow the conversation on social media, follow @yellowwelliesuk on Twitter or visit the Yellow Wellies website.