Public liability insurance customers in the north-east have been told that they should take health and safety matters more seriously.
New figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed that despite nationwide statistics showing a reduction in the number of people killed, injured or suffering work related ill-health between April 2008 and March 2009, the north-east showed an increase.
There were nine deaths in the workplace in the period, up from seven in the previous year, while serious injuries were also up by 52 incidents to 1,362.
David Snowball, HSE regional director for the north-east and Yorkshire, said that the fact that nine people died last year was a tragedy.
He added: "We owe it to those workers, to their families and friends, to increase our efforts to ensure that risks are properly managed in the workplace."
HSE chairperson Judith Hackitt commented that the improvements in the national picture were partly because of a reduction in activity by public liability insurance customers during the recession.