Small and medium-sized enterprises account for almost all UK private-sector businesses. This page combines official business-population and employer-training estimates with clearly dated findings from Hiscox’s 2023 poll of 1,500 small business leaders. A survey answer about having a policy is not, by itself, a legal compliance assessment.
Key facts and figures
- 99.85% of the UK’s private-sector businesses were SMEs at the start of 2025; they accounted for 16.9 million jobs, or 60% of private-sector employment.
- 66% of respondents to Hiscox’s 2023 SME poll reported a risk assessment policy;30% did not and 4% were unsure.
- 36% of SMEs provided annual health & safety training (Hiscox 2023).
- 28% of SMEs had a dedicated health & safety staff member (Hiscox 2023).
- 16% of businesses in Hiscox’s 2023 poll reported none of its listed first-aid, information, consultation, annual assessment, training or safety-staff measures.
- 31% of SME leaders ranked health & safety as their highest priority (Hiscox 2023).
- 24% of SMEs had no public liability insurance, and 67% of those had no plan to obtain it within 12 months (Hiscox 2023).
- 45% of SME employers arranged or funded any staff training in 2024 — from 39% of micro firms to 82% of medium ones (LSBS 2024).
Checked on 15 October 2026. The official sources are the 2025 Business Population Estimates and 2024 Longitudinal Small Business Survey. Hiscox’s behavioural findings remain explicitly dated 2023. The 2026 business-population release is scheduled for 5 November 2026.
How many UK businesses are SMEs?
At the start of 2025 the UK had about 5.7 million private-sector businesses. SMEs with fewer than 250 employees represented 99.85% of businesses. There were about 5.64 million small businesses with 0–49 employees,38,435 medium-sized businesses and 8,335 large businesses.
The workforce numbers matter just as much as the count. SMEs accounted for roughly 60% of private-sector employment in 2025 — about 16.9 million jobs — so the health and safety behaviour of small firms shapes the working conditions of the majority of the private-sector workforce. It is also worth noting how small “small” really is: 75% of all UK businesses have no employees at all beyond the owner or partners, which is why so much of the compliance burden lands on people running a business single-handed. Every one of these employers with staff carries the same legal duty to assess risk as a multinational — see our guide to what a risk assessment is under UK law.
What percentage of small businesses have a risk assessment policy?
Hiscox’s 2023 poll of 1,500 small business leaders found 66% reported a risk assessment policy,30% did not and 4% were unsure. These are self-reported historical survey findings, not a current census of all SMEs or proof that every business in a category complied with the law.
Among those without a risk assessment policy,16% planned to introduce one within the following 12 months. That intention was recorded in 2023 and does not show what those businesses subsequently did. Assessment duties and recording requirements depend on the applicable law and circumstances, not the survey label “policy”.
How many SMEs provide health & safety training and dedicated staff?
In the 2023 Hiscox poll,36% reported annual health and safety training,28% access to a dedicated safety staff member,52% first-aid facilities and 42% health and safety literature. The 16% reporting none referred to the survey’s specific list, including annual assessments and consultation; it did not simply mean “no risk assessment policy”. Annual training is not a universal statutory interval.
Priorities help explain the gap. Just 31% of SME leaders ranked health and safety as their highest priority (Hiscox 2023), which in a small firm — where the owner is typically also the safety manager, the buyer and the salesperson — tends to translate directly into whether basic controls get put in place. The official training data from the DBT survey tells a consistent story from a different angle: 45% of SME employers arranged or funded any staff training at all in 2024, a figure that climbs steeply with size, from 39% of micro firms to 72% of small and 82% of medium ones (LSBS 2024). Smaller firms train less, and health and safety training is one of the first things to slip when time and budget are tight. If that is your business, our online Risk Assessment Training course is built to close exactly this gap without pulling anyone off the job for a day.
| Safety measure in place | Share of SMEs | Source & period |
|---|---|---|
| Risk assessment policy | 66% | Hiscox 2023 |
| Access to first aid facilities | 52% | Hiscox 2023 |
| Health & safety information (posters/leaflets) | 42% | Hiscox 2023 |
| Annual health & safety training | 36% | Hiscox 2023 |
| Health & safety ranked highest priority | 31% | Hiscox 2023 |
| Dedicated health & safety staff member | 28% | Hiscox 2023 |
| None of the survey’s listed safety measures | 16% | Hiscox 2023; specific listed measures |
How often do small firms seek health & safety advice?
In the 2024 Longitudinal Small Business Survey,27% of SME employers sought external information or advice. Among advice-seekers, health and safety was a topic for 6% of micro,11% of small and 8% of medium-sized employers. The manufacturing and construction figures were both 15% of advice-seekers in those sectors, not 15% of every firm.
The pattern across every one of these measures is the same: the smaller the business, the less likely it is to have formal safety arrangements, to train staff or to seek advice — with the sole exception of higher-risk sectors, where advice-seeking rises regardless of size. For the small employer, this is precisely where accessible, low-cost online training earns its place: it substitutes for the in-house safety adviser that four out of five micro firms simply do not have. IOSH, the professional body for safety practitioners, makes the same point in its policy position on SMEs and occupational safety, noting that smaller firms often lack the in-house expertise and resources that larger organisations take for granted.
Does risk-assessment adoption vary by sector?
Hiscox’s 2023 poll reported a risk assessment policy in 92% of engineering and manufacturing respondents;40% of retail respondents said they did not have one. The latter cannot automatically be converted into 60% with a policy because “unsure” was also a response. Sector subsamples are smaller than the overall poll.
The official advice figures have a separate denominator: businesses that sought external information or advice. They cannot be combined with the Hiscox policy figures to prove that a sector is complacent or that its assessments are unsuitable. Each employer should assess the actual hazards its work creates.
Do small businesses have the right insurance?
In Hiscox’s 2023 poll,24% reported no public liability insurance;67% of that subgroup did not plan to obtain it within 12 months. Public liability insurance is not generally a statutory requirement, although contracts may require it. Most employers in Great Britain must have employers’ liability insurance unless an exemption applies; GOV.UK states fines can reach £2,500 for each uninsured day.
Hiscox reported average costs of £17,185 in the preceding 12 months arising from public injury. This is not an average cost of workplace accidents generally, and the report does not support the claim of 3.2 workplace accidents per SME. It should be read as a dated insurer-survey finding.
Are small businesses more likely to have workplace accidents?
The sources presented here do not establish a current all-sector fatality-rate ratio for small versus large businesses. Business size, industry and work activity affect comparisons, and these policy and training surveys do not measure injury incidence. The relevant national evidence is summarised in our risk assessment statistics guide.
The reason the gap exists is exactly what the resourcing numbers describe: smaller firms are less likely to have a safety policy, a trained workforce, dedicated safety staff or access to advice. Higher exposure meets lower control. That is not an argument that small businesses are careless — it is a structural feature of running a business with no dedicated safety function, and it is the strongest single argument for the accessible, proportionate training this site exists to provide.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of UK small businesses have a risk assessment policy?
In Hiscox’s 2023 poll of 1,500 small business leaders,66% reported a risk assessment policy,30% did not and 4% were unsure. These are dated survey responses, not a current national compliance rate.
How many SMEs provide annual health and safety training?
Hiscox’s 2023 poll reported 36% providing annual health and safety training and 28% with dedicated safety staff. The separate official 2024 SME employer survey found 45% arranged or funded any training, including 39% of micro and 82% of medium-sized employers. These measure different kinds of provision.
How many UK businesses are SMEs and how many people do they employ?
SMEs represented 99.85% of UK private-sector businesses at the start of 2025 and accounted for 16.9 million jobs, or 60% of private-sector employment. There were about 5.7 million businesses overall, and 75% had no employees beyond owners or partners.
Are small businesses more likely to have workplace accidents than large ones?
The policy and training sources on this page do not establish a current national accident-rate ratio by business size. Compare official injury rates only where industry, population and period are consistent; do not infer an accident rate from whether a business reports having a policy.
How often are these SME statistics updated?
Checked on 15 October 2026. The latest business-population estimates used here cover the start of 2025; the 2026 release is scheduled for 5 November 2026. Training and advice figures are from the 2024 SME employer survey, while Hiscox’s findings are historical 2023 poll results.
Related guides
- Risk Assessment Statistics UK: Compliance Facts & Data
- Health & Safety Training Statistics UK
- HSE Enforcement Statistics UK: Fines, Prosecutions & Notices
- What is a risk assessment? A guide to UK workplace law
- The 5 steps to risk assessment: how to do one properly
- Who can carry out a risk assessment? The competence question explained
Sources & references
- DBT — Business Population Estimates 2025
- DBT — Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024: SME employers
- Hiscox — Risk Readiness Report 2023, original poll findings
- HSE — Managing risks and risk assessment
- GOV.UK — Employers’ liability insurance
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Mark writes about workplace health & safety, risk assessment and accredited online training for Risk Assessment Training, part of Online CPD Academy.