EMPLOYERS are being urged to focus on the real risks within the workplace following major injuries to 54 people in St Helens last year.

Businesses are being encouraged to rethink their entire operational safety provisions by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to ensure employee safety is prioritised at all times.

This push has come on the back of recent figures which showed three people died and further 479 suffered major injuries in workplaces across Merseyside last year.

Figures also showed that more than 2,000 workers were forced to take three or more days off as a result of injuries which occurred at work.

In St Helens 54 major injuries happened at work last year and 319 injuries which caused employees to miss three or more days.

David Snowball, HSE’s Director for the North, said: “Health and safety needs to be taken seriously.

“I hope that in 2013 employers will tackle the real rather than the trivial dangers that workers face and not mire themselves in pointless paperwork so we can reduce the number of workplace deaths and major injuries.”