‘Be the change’ on farm safety

Farm Safety Week (21-25 July) has come round again for 2025 but has anything changed to improve the sector (agriculture, forestry and fishing) with the highest rate of fatal injury by far? Sadly not. While the sector accounts for only one percent of Britain’s workforce, it still claims around 20 percent of all worker fatalities.

In 2024/25, 27 people died in the sector, including four members of the public, two of whom were children. Agriculture, forestry and fishing still has a fatality rate that’s 22 times the average UK all-industry rate for the last five years. Furthermore, 11,000 people were seriously injured on British farms in 2023/24. That means out of every 100 farm workers, around four will sustain a reportable workplace injury each year.

In a letter to Farmers Weekly this week, IOSH President-Elect Richard Bate points to how ill health also plagues farmers to a disproportionate degree. This includes high rates of musculoskeletal disorders, respiratory and skin diseases, as well as chronic pain and mobility issues.

“Add to this the mental health impacts that financial pressures, regulatory uncertainty, labour shortages, succession planning and isolation can have on farmers and their families, all linked to a high suicide rate, and the situation is precarious,” he writes.

Free webinar – can you be the change?

During this Farm Safety Week, we’re linking with the Farm Safety Foundation and the Farming Community Network to run a free webinar. It’s a chance to gather safety and health experts from farming to explore what needs to change.

The webinar – hosted by Richard Bate on Thursday 24 July, 12:30–13:30 (BST) – will probe farming’s bleak safety record. The challenge for everyone present is to ‘be the change’ in ‘shaping a safer future for rural industries.’ Richard will be joined by a knowledgeable and committed panel featuring:

Stephanie Berkeley – Manager, Farm Safety Foundation
Alex Phillimore, Head of Communications and Development, Farming Community Network
Olivia Barrett – IOSH future leaders steering group and Risk Management Consultant, NFU Mutual
Mike Whiting – Chair, IOSH Rural Industries community.

The focus is on practical solutions and a shared responsibility to create a more positive health and safety culture in the sector. The webinar will challenge why, in a recent LinkedIn poll, 75 per cent of more than 400 respondents cited ‘General attitudes to risk’ as a reason implementing OSH practices is hardest in rural industries.

Richard has vowed to dedicate his IOSH presidential year to improving outcomes for our farmers. He believes farm life shouldn’t need to be a game of chance and that good risk management, awareness and behaviour saves and changes lives.