Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many reports were made by his Department to the Health and Safety Executive in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022 and (e) 2023.

The principal statutory regulation for reporting harm to individuals is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). Under RIDDOR there is no requirement to report to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) the injury, death or diagnosis of a member of the armed forces when on-duty. However, the Ministry of Defence has undertaken to notify HSE as if such incidents were RIDDOR reportable.

The table[1] below sets out the number of reports to the Health and Safety Executive for UK Armed Forces personnel broken down by calendar year and number[2] of reports:

Prior to 2021, the Ministry of Defence did not hold centrally the number of RIDDOR reports for Armed Forces personnel submitted to the HSE. Reports relating to civilian personnel are made at a local level, and information is not compiled and held centrally.

[1] HSE notifications from the period 1 March 2021 to 14 November 2023 which includes injuries for on-duty UK military personnel which had occurred in the UK.

[2] Does not include fatalities.

[3] Data is available from 1 March 2021.

[4] Injuries due to sports were included until Feb 2022.

[5] Data is provided up until 14 November 2023