If you’re responsible for health and safety at your organisation, slips and trips probably aren’t top of your worry list. Fire safety, manual handling, maybe lone working – those tend to get the attention. But slips and trips cause more workplace injuries than any of them.
That’s not an exaggeration. Slips, trips and falls made up 30% of all non-fatal employee injuries reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under RIDDOR in 2024/25. That’s the single biggest cause of non-fatal workplace injuries that year.
This article covers your legal duty, and what practical, everyday training can do to reduce your risks.
Slips and trips in the workplace – a problem that hasn’t gone away
You’d expect a problem this well known to have improved by now. It hasn’t, at least not much.
HSE’s own data shows an estimated 680,000 workers sustained a non-fatal injury at work in 2024/25. Of the injuries reported to HSE under RIDDOR, slips, trips and falls on the same level remain the single biggest recorded cause. That’s not a construction site statistic or a niche industrial hazard. It affects offices, warehouses, care settings, shops, schools and kitchens.
Familiarity breeds complacency, and that’s a big part of the problem. A wet floor sign, an overstuffed stockroom, a cable across a walkway – these things become part of the scenery. Staff stop noticing them, which is exactly when someone gets hurt.
The legal duty you can’t sidestep
This isn’t just good practice. It’s a legal requirement, and it applies to every employer regardless of size or sector.
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, you must assess the risk of slips and trips in your workplace. You must then take reasonable steps to control it. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 go further, requiring floors to be suitable, well maintained and free from obstructions.
In practice, that means:
- A suitable and sufficient risk assessment. Identify where slip and trip hazards exist and what you’re doing about them. If you employ five or more people, you must record the significant findings.
- Regular review. Workplaces change. Review your risk assessment if you think it’s no longer valid or there has been a significant change, such as a new furniture layout or change of cleaning contractor.
- Clear responsibility. Make sure staff know who’s responsible for dealing with issues such as unsafe floors, obstructed walkways and poor lighting, and how to report hazards when they spot them.
Falling short here isn’t just a safety issue. It can leave preventable hazards in place and make it harder to show that you’ve taken appropriate steps to manage the risk.
The everyday hazards hiding in plain sight
Most slip and trip hazards aren’t hidden. They’re just easy to walk past.
Here’s what tends to catch people out:
- Wet or recently mopped floors. Spillages, leaks and cleaning can all create slip risks. Deal with contamination promptly and, where necessary, keep people away from the affected area until it’s safe.
- Trailing cables and cords. Chargers, extension leads and phone cables left across walkways are a near-daily trip hazard in offices.
- Cluttered walkways. Boxes, stock, bags and furniture left in corridors reduce the space people need to move safely.
- Poor lighting. Dim stairwells, storerooms and car parks make it harder to spot changes in floor level.
- Weather-related risks. Ice, rain and wet leaves can make entrances and outdoor walkways particularly hazardous during autumn and winter.
None of these require an expensive fix. Most come down to housekeeping, awareness and a habit of dealing with hazards the moment they’re spotted.
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Turning staff into your first line of defence
A risk assessment on file won’t stop someone tripping over a box left in a corridor. Trained, alert staff will.
The most effective slip and trip prevention doesn’t rely on major changes to your premises. It relies on people knowing what to look for and feeling confident enough to act on it. That means training staff to:
- Recognise hazards as they appear, not just during a formal inspection or after an incident has already happened.
- Report problems immediately, whether that’s a spill, a loose tile or a flickering light, rather than assuming someone else will notice.
- Understand their own role, including the basics such as wearing appropriate footwear and not taking shortcuts through storage areas.
- Feel comfortable raising concerns, particularly where a hazard might be caused by a colleague, a contractor or a visitor.
This works best when it’s built into everyday habits, not treated as a one-off session. A team that’s genuinely alert to slip and trip risks will catch problems long before they ever need reporting to you directly.
Prevention starts with everyday awareness
Slips and trips have topped the injury charts for years, and the reason is simple: the hazards are ordinary, so they’re easy to overlook. The businesses that reduce their risk are the ones where every member of staff knows what to look for and feels responsible for doing something about it.
When did you last check that your whole team could confidently spot a slip or trip hazard before it caused an injury?
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Please note: This article provides general information about accidents in the workplace and isn’t intended as legal advice. Organisations should seek appropriate advice about how the requirements apply to their individual circumstances.
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