Every fall from height statistically represents a person, a family and a workplace that are all changed forever.
But despite decades of progress in safety, falls from height are still the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the UK.
No Falls Week 2026: A vital initiative bringing industry together
From 18-22 May, industries working at height come together for No Falls Week, a campaign led by the No Falls Foundation to raise awareness of the risks associated with working at height and to promote safer working practices across all sectors.
This year, Omega Red Group is supporting the campaign through a special episode of The Grounded in Safety podcast, hosted by Managing Director, Nick Marshall and featuring Kelly Nicoll, Past President of IOSH and Trustee of the No Falls Foundation.
As Kelly explains in the episode, No Falls Week is a dedicated week of national effort to achieve a simple but powerful goal: one week across the UK where nobody falls and nobody is seriously injured. If the industry can do that for seven days, it can become something to repeat, build upon and embed into everyday practice.
Falls from height have consistently been the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the UK. The most recent HSE statistics show that 35 workers lost their lives due to falls from height in 2024-25. That’s 28% of all fatal workplace accidents. There were also 4,684 non-fatal falls from height reported in 2024/25*.
Kelly humanises these numbers: “It’s getting a knock on the door saying that somebody’s not coming home… and it’s not just those people who don’t come home, it’s the people who have completely life-changing, life-altering and life-limiting injuries.”
The risks aren’t limited to falls – dropped objects are a serious hazard too, posing a risk to both workers and members of the public.
Why the No Falls principle is foundational to Omega Red Group's mission
At Omega Red Group, height safety is central to what we do every day.
A significant proportion of our team work at height, across both our height safety and lightning protection services. The whole mission of our height safety division revolves around preventing falls from height – providing installation, test and inspection and consultancy services designed to help clients build safer working environments, as well as meeting their legal obligations.
For us, it’s so much more than just compliance.
As Tim Lee, our Technical Manager for Height Safety, says in Episode 2 of Grounded in Safety: “What we do keeps people safe.”
This fundamental principle underpins every system we design, every installation and every inspection.
Beyond compliance: Building a safety culture
The conversation around working at height has evolved significantly in recent years.
Legislation, notably the Building Safety Act 2022, has reinforced the importance of competence, collaboration and accountability across all levels in the built environment sector.
But regulation alone will never eliminate the risk. And we will never be able to fully eliminate the risks posed by gravity.
Real, meaningful change happens when organisations build a culture where everyone feels empowered to question and challenge unsafe practices and where everyone truly values continuous learning from both good and bad examples.
As Nick Marshall says, “It comes down to communication. It’s about a human connection.”
That is why communication and education are such a vital part of our philosophy at Omega Red. Through our podcast, website, newsletters, and wider industry engagement, we want to encourage conversations that improve safety standards, not just within our business or for our customers, but across the industry.
What we explore in the podcast
In this special three-part No Falls Week episode, Nick Marshall and Kelly Nicoll discuss some of the most important issues in working at height, including:
- The power of storytelling to shape safer behaviour
- Why safety culture and behavioural safety matter right now
- The importance of inductions
- Learning from both near misses and best practice
- Collaborative risk assessments and involving workers as experts
- Challenging unsafe work
- The surprising ways that Gen Z are influencing safety change
The range of the discussion highlights a key truth – safety is everyone’s responsibility.
No Falls Week gives us all the opportunity to pause, reflect on our current practices and culture, and make a renewed commitment to advancing safety together.
For Omega Red Group, it also reminds us why our work matters – people’s lives depend on it.
*Source: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/assets/docs/ridkind.xlsx
