Just imagine you are injured tomorrow.
How would that injury affect your life? You might be training for a half marathon, planning your wedding, or about to become a parent. Your long-anticipated holiday plans could go out of the window. Your injuries might set back your studies. You might not be able to attend an important upcoming work event, or even work at all for a while. You could be looking forward to your son or daughter’s graduation, a birthday party, or a trip to see family. Maybe you even have Oasis tickets. You might be excited about a summer of sunny evening walks, and family time during the long school holiday.
However big or small the plans are, an injury of any degree will turn them upside down. No-one expects or chooses to be needlessly injured, but someone else’s carelessness or recklessness makes that choice for at least half a million Brits each year* - and they are just the ones we know about. It’s the equivalent of everyone in Liverpool being injured in just a 12-month period. It’s a lot of people, and then the year goes around again and 500,000 more suffer. So, you probably think this does not apply to you but it could. Anyone could be a victim of negligence. This is why APIL hosts Injury Awareness Week (23-29 June).
Needless injuries are those which have been proven to be caused by negligence, and therefore could and should have been avoided. They are not accidents, which are truly unforeseeable, unfortunate, mishaps which could never have been prevented.
This year we’re shining a light on the concept of bodily integrity. Bodily integrity is a fundamental human right. Your body is the only body you will ever have and it is with you from your beginning until your end; you should have authority over what happens to it. An injured person loses that. As well as dealing with the harm, for the victim it can also mean grappling with a profound sense of violation.
The harm is very personal for injured people, but so is the fact that it should not have happened. When someone fails to take proper care, including drivers who text behind the wheel and employers who ignore broken and unsafe equipment, the effect will ricochet through the lives of the victims and their families.
Some injuries are life-changing and some have catastrophic consequences, having a life-long impact on victims’ ability to work, walk, and look after themselves and their families. But even those who will recover eventually have still had their bodily integrity compromised and their lives disrupted through no fault of their own. A needless injury at any level has a financial, emotional, and physical affect. It can isolate people socially, suspend careers, rob people of their independence, and set life back.
In this country there is hope for someone who becomes a victim of negligence. In most cases, an injured person can turn to the law on personal injury for help. Through the law they can get the support they need including provision for treatment, equipment, and the general financial shortfall caused by the injury. The needs of these injured people must be at the heart of policymaking. It is something we should all care about, as no-one is immune to the impact of negligence.
APIL’s flagship campaign Rebuilding Shattered Lives demonstrates how a victim of negligence can get back to a good, albeit different, life despite the disruptive and destructive effect of the harm they have suffered. The campaign shares real accounts from injured people, who have been able to turn to the law on negligence to get the help and support they need to get their lives back on track. Watch one of these stories here.
Make sure to look at and share APIL’s Injury Awareness Week 2025 content on Bluesky, Instagram, X, and Facebook. Use and search the hashtag #IAWeek2025.
*Source: Figures from Department of Work and Pension’s Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU).
Matthew Tuff
APIL president