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Latest campaign update:

RoSPA is working to secure an amendment to the Health Bill, currently passing through Parliament, which would place a responsibility on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to drive improvements in the collection, quality and use of safety and injury data.

By establishing a clear responsibility for improving data, this amendment will create a stronger evidence base for identifying emerging risks, targeting prevention activity and evaluating impact.

We are drafting the amendment and hope to introduce it when the Health Bill reaches the House of Lords. The timetable has yet to be confirmed.

We can't stop what we don't understand.

Every day, people across the UK suffer life-changing injuries that could have been prevented.

Many never fully recover. Some lose their independence. Tens of thousands lose their lives year on year.

Behind every statistic is a person, a family and a community living with the consequences of a preventable accident.

Yet there often isn’t enough information to understand and help prevent similar tragedies in the future.

At RoSPA, we believe better data can save lives.

That's why we're calling for urgent action to improve the way accident, injury and safety data is collected, connected and used across the UK.

That’s where you come in. Can your organisation support our campaign for a stronger, safer country? We need you to sign up to support our statement.

A hidden crisis

Falls are THE biggest causes of accidental death and injury in the UK.

Every year over 10,000 people are killed and half a million people are admitted to hospital because of a fall.

Yet despite these shocking numbers, 84% of UK fall deaths and 36% of fall-related hospital admissions were recorded as "unspecified" in 2023.

That means that in the vast majority of fatal falls, we do not have enough information to fully understand why these tragedies have happened.

Was it a fall on stairs? A trip on uneven ground? A fall in a care setting? A fall at home? Too often, the answer is recorded simply as "unspecified".

When the details are missing, opportunities to prevent future deaths are lost.

Join our mission to make the UK a safer nation for all

By signing this statement, your organisation will publicly support our national campaign for better safety and injury data which makes more targeted action possible and could save lives and keep people safe from accidental harm.

Statement:

We believe that every preventable death and injury is one too many.

By signing up to our statement, you are building support for better safety and injury data so that preventable harm can be spotted earlier and lives can be protected.

By signing this statement, we commit to supporting RoSPA’s campaign for better data, which saves lives and keeps people safe.

We recognise that high-quality data is essential to understanding risk, identifying harm and preventing future tragedies.

We support efforts to improve the collection, linkage, analysis and use of safety and injury data across the UK.

We support RoSPA's Better Data, Safer Lives campaign and its goal of creating stronger evidence for preventing avoidable harm

The cost of not knowing

Poor data has real-world consequences.

When information is incomplete, fragmented or unavailable:

  • Risks remain hidden
  • Dangerous trends are harder to spot
  • Prevention programmes are less effective
  • Resources cannot be accurately targeted to where they will have the biggest impact
  • Lives that could be saved continue to be put at risk.

This is not just a data issue. This is a threat to people’s lives..

How do we solve this crisis?

RoSPA is calling for a national commitment to improve the collection,
sharing and use of safety and injury data.

We want to see:

Better collection:
Collecting richer and more consistent information about accidents and injuries

Better connection:
Joining up different datasets to build a more comprehensive overview of risks

Better understanding:
Using data to identify patterns, trends and opportunities for prevention

Better action:
Turning evidence into practical interventions that stop people being harmed

A safer country:
Every life lost to a preventable accident is one too many.

By bringing together organisations, professionals and individuals, we can
build the case for better data and safer lives.