DEMITONResearch / Lapsed compliance statistics
Lapsed compliance: what it costs a construction contractor
Accidents, lapsed licences and insurance, and the cost of breaching the obligations that come with the job.
The record holds 3 figures on lapsed compliance from 3 sources. No Queensland-specific figure yet; the Australian figures apply.
Updated 2026-09-25 · release data-latest-4-g72a88f5 · all five diseases
Every figure
| Figure | Of | What it measures | Where | Confidence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19% | of the total cost of work injury | Employers' share of the total cost of work-related injury and illness (Australia) | Australia | high | Safe Work Australia (2015) |
| A$97,408 | per case (2013 AUD) | Employer cost per construction accident, from a short absence to a fatality | Australia | moderate | Allison, Hon & Xia (2019) |
| 0.25% | of contract value | Accident cost as a share of contract sum (Singapore building contractors) | Singapore | moderate | Teo & Feng (2011) |
Questions and answers
What do accidents and lapsed compliance cost a construction contractor?
Other figures in the record: 19% of the total cost of work injury (Australia); A$97,408 per case (2013 AUD) (Australia); 0.25% of contract value (Singapore).
Is there Queensland evidence on lapsed compliance?
Not yet. The record has no Queensland-specific figure on lapsed compliance; the Australia-wide figures apply.
How reliable is the lapsed compliance figure?
There is no headline figure for this disease yet.
The evidence
A$97,408per case (2013 AUD)Employer cost per construction accident, from a short absence to a fatalityAustraliaModerate confidenceContractor loss
What it is. AUD per incident to the employer, ranging AU$1,200 (short absence) to AU$97,408 (fatality).
Range A$1,200 to A$97,408 (reported min max)
Sample. Built from the Safe Work Australia 2012-13 dataset plus three Tier-two contractor case studies, Australia. Employer-borne: AU$1,200 (58.82%) for a short absence, AU$6,211 for a long absence, AU$50,175 for full incapacity, AU$97,408 for a fatality (2.23% of that accident's total cost).
What it is not. Not independent - it re-cuts the same Safe Work Australia data and is checked against only three case studies, with no averaged employer cost per accident. Severity-specific, so the high end is a fatality and not a typical incident. Penalties are separate and can reach AU$17.0m (Category 1, Commonwealth) or AU$20m (industrial manslaughter, NSW). Price year taken from the source's data year; not yet confirmed against the source's tables.
Where it came from
- Allison, Hon & Xia (2019), Construction accidents in Australia: Evaluating the true costs · free copytables 6 and 7 · source record
0.25%of contract valueAccident cost as a share of contract sum (Singapore building contractors)SingaporeModerate confidenceContractor loss
What it is. 0.25% of contract sum, insured (0.15%) plus uninsured (0.1%) accident cost.
Sample. A questionnaire survey of Singapore building contractors, 2011. Read from the paper's own abstract; the sample size is not stated there.
What it is not. Singapore building work, not Australian civil, and contractors' own survey estimates rather than cost records. The full paper has not been read, so the sample size is unconfirmed. A weak Indian study found about 0.48% accident loss; the often-quoted '7.9% to 15%' comes from 1990s US data that could not be verified and is excluded.
Where it came from
- Teo & Feng (2011), Costs of Construction Accidents to Singapore Contractorsabstract, as reproduced on the co-author's institutional research portal: https://researchers.westernsydney.edu.au/en/publications/costs-of-construction-accidents-to-singapore-contractors (the publisher page and full text returned 403) · source record
History
- 2026-09-25 Previously read only as a search snippet (secondary, unverified). Now read from the paper's own abstract, which confirms the 0.25% and adds the insured and uninsured split. A survey of contractors' own estimates grades moderate under METHOD.md Section 4. The title and industry (building, F41) are corrected from the abstract.