It’s a dangerous life working at the headquarters of health and safety

They are the leaders of the health and safety revolution, preaching a gospel of slip-free surfaces, sensible chairs, secure hinges and signs alerting people to any accident black-spot around the workplace.

But the inspectors of the Health and Safety Executive, and the offices in which they work, appear to attract mishaps and slip-ups with unnerving regularity. Falling lavatory-roll dispensers, flea bites and ill-fitting safety shoes were among hundreds of incidents involving the organisation’s 3,500 employees. One minor injury was also reported after someone walked into a warning sign.

According to data released under the Freedom of Information Act, there were more than 500 accidents and injuries in a 3½ year period. The rate equates to one incident almost every two working days and far exceeds sectors such as heavy industry, farming and vehicle repairs.

Inspectors were injured 96 times between April 2003 and September last year. There were a further 415 injuries on the executive’s premises, 72 of which were to visitors.

There were 154 slips, trips or falls. A wet tea-room floor was responsible for one employee suffering a groin strain and another slipped on a plastic bag and pulled a hamstring. Other examples included slipping on a raisin and tripping over a bin. One employee bruised her eye when a lavatory-roll dispenser fell from the wall. Inspectors were also physically or verbally assaulted nine times.