Despite mounting evidence of a preventable accident crisis in the UK, the government has indicated it has no plans to create a comprehensive national accident prevention strategy. This comes as accidental death rates have hit an all-time high, up 42% over the past decade, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

Baroness Sherlock, the Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions, told a House of Lords debate on the RoSPA proposal to create a strategy how the government could not agree to the charity’s call for an individual minister to be appointed to lead such a project.

Baroness Sherlock did however acknowledge that a more effective, co-ordinated approach on accident prevention was needed across government.

RoSPA is a charity that campaigns to reduce accidents at home, on the road, at work and at leisure. Their report ‘Safer lives, stronger nation: Our call for a national accident prevention strategy’ in November 2024 brought together data from across the four nations of the UK, using sources such as mortality and case of death data, hospital admissions data, police-reported transport data, and RoSPA’s water safety database. Some of the key findings were as follows:

• over the last decade, accidental death rates have risen sharply, by 42%
• 21,336 people died of accidents in 2022, enough to fill London’s O2 arena
• accidents are the leading cause of preventable death in the under 40s
• RoSPA estimated around 840,000 people were admitted to hospital across the UK due to accidents in 2022/23, using up 5.2 million bed days
• a further 7 million people attended A&E due to accidents
• this costs the NHS at least £6bn annually, and likely considerably more, as this excludes the cost of surgery and community services like GPs

RoSPA highlighted both the human and the economic costs of accidents. It said the tens of thousands of people who die in accidents leave behind families, friends and loved ones who are "devastated by their sudden loss". 

People who survive injuries sustained in an accident may face “long roads to recovery; they can suffer from disfigurement, disability and mental health problems”. RoSPA estimated that accidents cost the UK 29 million lost working days per year and cost businesses £5.9bn due to lost output and indirect management costs relating to staff absences.

In calling for an aligned national strategy, RoSPA has also argued for this co-ordinated approach to be made the specific responsibility of an individual minister without a portfolio, enabling this minister to treat accident prevention holistically and with the authority to attend the Cabinet and to convene cross-department committees.

However, Baroness Sherlock said she was not in a position to "agree" to a proposal to appoint a minister and that the government would "continue to reflect on that proposal and on the report as we consider how best to continually improve effective co-ordination across government".

The government has not commented directly on RoSPA’s proposals and has instead identified ‘prevention’ as a key element of its health policy. Launching the 10-year plan for the NHS in July 2025, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said moving the focus from sickness to prevention was one of three key shifts needed to make the NHS "fit for the future”.

The reluctance to embrace a co-ordinated national strategy could represent a missed opportunity, with the UK continuing to lag behind other nations that have successfully implemented national safety frameworks.