As the passing of John Prescott, who has died this morning aged 86, was announced by his family, it feels apt that 24 hours earlier the Health and Safety Executive published its latest annual report into deaths, ill health and injuries.

In 2001, Prescott, then the second most powerful man in the country, summoned the industry to a conference centre in the middle of London to sort out its safety record.

The fact he was deputy prime minister gave the safety summit at the QEII venue in February that year real weight. No one of such a rank before or since had personally – and so publicly – intervened on this issue in this way.