A third of deaths in the British military occur as a result of safety failures, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.
Minutes from a MoD board meeting last year, leaked to The Independent on Sunday, reveal that nearly 800 service personnel have been killed over the past 10 years, in accidents ranging from car crashes to electric shocks.
The minutes quote MoD official, Sir Ian Andrews, who warned his peers: “Examination of the figures on deaths in the Armed Forces between 2001 and 2008 showed that one in three of the total number recorded was caused by health and safety failures. . . Analysis of the data on fatalities, which, overall, had worsened during the reporting period, suggested the department had to improve significantly.”
According to figures seen by the newspaper, 201 military servicemen and women died in 2007, with 73 defined as “deaths due to violence”, including those killed in hostilities. However, 80 deaths were attributable to accidents, the vast majority of which were the result of road-traffic incidents.
The figures will be a source of concern to the Ministry, given the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act removed its crown immunity to prosecution over work-related deaths where serious health and safety breaches are involved.
In the run-up to the Act gaining Royal Assent, Colonel Chris Manning told the IOSH Conference in 2007 that it was imperative for the military to take on the challenge presented by the new law, and make efforts to ensure it was as well prepared as possible.
He added: “We can do better in relation to industrial accidents, and it is entirely reasonable that we should be prosecuted under the law if a gross breach results in someone’s death. . . [W]e cannot afford to have avoidable accidents, or we’re doing the enemy’s job for them.
“However, the moment we say that the safety issue becomes more important than business output itself, we lose confidence of those we are seeking to influence. We have to acknowledge that soldiering is a dangerous business, and that we are there to deliver violence to a potential battlefield.”
Commenting on The Independent on Sunday’s report, an MoD spokesperson said: “The MoD takes all available measures to minimise risks through provision of the best equipment, training and procedures for our personnel. Military life can never be risk-free and although we make every effort to minimise risks, we can never remove them entirely.”
