john, to be fair the percentage rise looks worse than the actual figure of 35 for 2014/15 against 43 for 205/16 with the five year average being 43 as well. Too many deaths nonetheless. What did surprise me from these figures was the 103 members of the public fatally injured in accidents connected to work in 2015/16, of which 36 (35 percent) related to incidents occurring on railways.

It is often stated that the number of construction fatalities is a function of the level of construction activity, has this ever been correlated?

Is any academic research going into this? Clearly this parallels the change to the CDM regs which were beefed up to improve safety after 2001 when John Prescott famously banged heads together.

Yes, I was musing about the increased % in public fatalities being linked to Railways. Wonder if this is due to increased horseplay by teenagers etc and increased suicides? I also predict that Construction fatalities might also increase if we continue taking on overseas workers whose first language is not English (e.g sub contractors). One of the barriers to good H&S is communication. Not a racist comment, but I am aware of the increase in such workers and communication cannot be easy plus cultural and perceptual differences.