Farmers in Largs, Millport and West Kilbride must be prepared to dedicate time and resources to health and safety standards to avoid falling foul of government inspections.

Following the launch of the latest raft of targeted on-farm inspections by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the region, agricultural expert Matt McWhirter has urged farmers to take workplace risk seriously or face severe penalties,

During farm visits, inspectors will look at key risk areas, including machinery, falls from height, and livestock – which account for many of the fatal and non-fatal injuries – as well as child safety.

The sweep will see inspectors visiting one hundred farms in Scotland up until March 2019, as part of the executive's continued efforts to crackdown on high rates of death and serious injury in the industry and change attitudes to risk.

Matt, of Ayrshire-based Farmers and Mercantile Insurance Brokers, said: “Agriculture is an industry in which risks are poorly managed, evidenced by persistently high rates of death, serious injury and ill-health.

“There are a number of factors that make managing risk a challenge – more farmers are having to work alone, to an older age, and with more high-powered machinery. More and more farmers are also under financial strain, so dedicating precious time and resources to managing risk may be a low priority for them – particularly if they are self-employed.

“But farmers cannot afford to simply pay lip service to health and safety.

“A lax attitude to health and safety policies, letting standards slip or ineffectively managing risk is a false economy; if breaches are found during inspections or after workplace incidents, farmers will find themselves in hot water, facing huge fines or even jail-time.” Agriculture represents just 1.2 per cent of the workforce in Great Britain but accounts for 20 per cent of reported work-related fatalities each year. HSE has previously estimated the economic cost of workplace injury and ill health in agriculture to be £293m.

In 2017/18, 33 people were killed in agriculture – around 18 times higher than the all industry fatal injury rate – and 13,000 people are estimated to suffer from a non-fatal injury – double the all industry rate.

Additionally, there are estimated to be 15,000 cases of occupational ill-health reported to be caused or made worse by work each year.