New safety figures show that just under 150 staff were killed at work in the last financial year.
The actual 2012/13 statistic of 148 deaths represents a 13.4% fall the 171 fatalities in 2011/12, according to provisional statistics announced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
But an HSE leader has urged UK business to concentrate on helping to reduce the amount of deaths this year.
The new figure equates to one death for every 200,000 workers between April 2012 and the finish of last March.
There were also 78,222 reported non-fatal injuries to staff in the past year, just under 20,000 major ones.
Of the 148 fatalities, 13 lost their lives working in London – a jump on the eight deaths recorded in the capital in the previous year.
Two in three workplace fatalities happened in high-risk industries such as construction, agriculture, manufacturing and waste and recycling.
Richard Boland, HSE head of operations for London, said: “One death is still too many. I would urge businesses to focus on helping to cut the number of deaths in 2014.”
Copyright Press Association 2014