Employers are being urged to focus on 'real risk' after 19 workers lost their lives and more than 2,100 suffered a major injury while at work in the East of England last year.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has asked business to rethink workplace safety provisions in the New Year after the number of deaths in Great Britain as a whole failed to show a significant fall during 2011/12.

The number of deaths throughout the East of England was the same as the previous year although Norfolk bucked the unwelcome trend by showing a significant improvement with no deaths compared to nine in 2010/11 and serious injuries down from 373 to 332.

Suffolk also halved its death rate from four to two.

The number of workers in the East of England suffering injuries that needed three days off work was 8,274 compared to 8,327 in 2010/11.

The HSE safety message has been delivered at a time when the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is deliberating over whether there will be any prosecution concerning one of the region's worst workplace tragedies in recent times.

Four builders, all from Suffolk, died when a steel construction collapsed on top of them on a site at Claxton Engineering Services, in Runham Vauxhall, Great Yarmouth, in January 2011.

The EDP's sister paper the East Anglian Daily Times launched the Four Friends Memorial Fund to create a lasting memorial and raised �34,000.

A Norfolk police spokesman said: 'A file has been submitted and we await the outcome from the CPS which is likely to be in the New Year.'

The HSE figures reveal that 173 workers were killed at work in Great Britain last year, compared to 175 during 2010/11. More than 23,000 workers suffered a major injury.

High-risk industries include construction, which had 49 deaths last year, agriculture with 33 deaths, manufacturing with 31 deaths and waste and recycling with five deaths.

Urging employers to make the safety of workers their top priority for 2013, Simon Longbottom, HSE's head of operations for Eastern England, said: 'Each year, instead of enjoying the occasion, families of workers who failed to come home from work safely spend Christmas and the New Year thinking of absent loved ones.

'Hundreds of other workers who have had their lives changed forever by major injury will be experiencing difficulties of their own. When put into this kind of context, it is clear why health and safety needs to be taken seriously.

'I implore employers to tackle the real dangers that workers face rather than focusing on the trivial or mire themselves in pointless paperwork.

'My New Year wish is that we can reduce the number of deaths and major injury and make the year ahead a happier one for many families.'

Information on tackling health and safety dangers in workplaces is available on HSE's website at www.hse.gov.uk