The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released statistics on Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) comprising data from the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) scheme and the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The IIDB scheme statistics, covering the period 2010 to 2023, show that in 2010 there were just under 200 new IIDB assessments for occupational deafness. Between 2010 and 2018, there was a steady decline, followed by an increase in 2019. Unsurprisingly, the number of new assessments decreased dramatically in the years 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. More recently, there were 85 and 100 new cases of work-related deafness in the years 2022 and 2023, respectively. 

The data demonstrates a great disparity between male and female claims with only five of the 745 cases being brought by females over the last decade. One reason for the limited number of cases being made by females is that there are fewer women working in environments with the high intensity noise levels needed to meet the eligibility criteria for such conditions. 

The LFS provides contrasting data, estimating that there were 12,000 workers with work-related hearing problems from 2021/22 to 2023/24. This estimate is of the number of prevalent cases, i.e. encompassing both new and longstanding cases.

One point to note is that IIDB assessments do have a stricter definition of ‘deafness’ and the threshold is much higher with the overall hearing loss being at 50dB or greater. There is also a lack of knowledge of the availability of compensation, and the IIDB scheme excludes any self-employed workers. 

It remains to be seen if the statistics for 2024 will be comparable with the preceding years.