HSE's annual figures, published on 1 July 2026, count 126 workers killed in work-related incidents in Great Britain in 2025/26. Falls from height were the most common cause with 31 deaths, about a quarter of the total, and construction had the most deaths of any industry at 25. The figures are provisional.
What the numbers say
| Source | Figure |
|---|---|
| HSE, Great Britain, 2025/26, provisional | 126 worker deaths, 31 from falls from height |
| BLS, United States, 2024 | 666 fatal falls to a lower level, 844 falls, slips and trips in all |
| BLS, construction, 2024 | 1,034 fatal injuries, 389 from falls, slips and trips |
| BLS, roofers, 2024 | 104 fatal injuries, rate 48.7 per 100,000 FTE |
| BLS, structural iron and steel workers, 2024 | 14 fatal injuries, rate 37.8 per 100,000 FTE |
| OSHA, preliminary fiscal 2026 | Fall protection, general requirements, is the most cited standard |
The hierarchy that drones fit into
HSE's guidance says: avoid work at height where reasonably practicable, prevent falls using a safe place of work or the right equipment, and minimise the distance and consequences of a fall. Collective measures such as guardrails come before personal ones such as harnesses. Drones and crawling robots belong in the first step: an inspection by camera is work at height avoided.
What the software must get right
- Safe stop and return behavior. A drone that loses link must land or return safely, and a climbing robot must hold.
- Human approval for any task that moves close to people or structures.
- Secure updates. Signed firmware and a known inventory of flight and control software.
- Tamper evident logs. Flight and command records support incident review.
- Offline operation. Sites with towers, roofs and bridges often have poor connectivity.
- Geofencing and limits set by policy, with changes approved and recorded.
Safeguard does not operate drones or robots and does not claim to reduce injuries. For makers it offers SBOMs, vulnerability scanning with known exploited status, policy gates, audit logs and air gapped deployment.
What to do now
- Identify inspections that a drone or robot could replace.
- Ask the vendor for an SBOM and for how updates are signed.
- Test link loss, battery low and GPS loss behaviors.
Quick check
Where do drones fit in the HSE hierarchy?
At avoid: if an inspection can be done without a person at height, the work at height is avoided.
Sources
- HSE, latest annual work-related fatalities published, 1 July 2026
- HSE, work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain
- HSE, work at height introduction
- BLS, Table 2, fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure
- BLS, Table A-1, industry by event or exposure, 2024
- BLS chart, fatal work injuries in selected occupations, 2024
- OSHA, most frequently cited standards, preliminary fiscal 2026
