The State of Workplace Safety Training in the UK: 2026 Report

This report draws on HSE statistical releases, our own course completion data, and responses from 420 HR and health & safety leads surveyed in Q4 2025.

Key findings

• RIDDOR-reportable injuries fell 4% year-on-year but remain 23% above the 2019 baseline in logistics and warehousing.

• Manual handling injuries account for 31% of non-fatal workplace injuries — unchanged for the third consecutive year.

• Only 41% of organisations surveyed had refreshed their fire risk assessment in the past 12 months, despite the legal requirement to review following any significant change.

• GDPR breach notifications to the ICO increased 18%, with human error (misdirected emails, lost devices) accounting for 63% of reported incidents.

Sector spotlight: logistics & warehousing

The sector continues to report disproportionately high manual handling and struck-by incident rates. Our data shows organisations that run quarterly refresher training (rather than annual) see a 34% lower incident rate over a rolling 3-year period.

Sector spotlight: professional services

Data protection incidents dominate. Misdirected emails remain the leading cause of notifiable breaches. Organisations with mandatory annual GDPR training report 29% fewer ICO notifications than those without.

Recommendations

1. Audit training completion records annually and close gaps before incidents occur.

2. Move from purely annual refresher cycles to shorter, higher-frequency interventions for high-risk tasks.

3. Test your incident-response plans, not just your risk assessments.

4. Ensure fire risk assessments are reviewed after any significant premises or process change, not just on a calendar schedule.

The full dataset, sector breakdowns, and methodology notes are included in the downloadable PDF.