§ SIR WILLIAM CROSSMAN (Portsmouth)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether his attention has been called to the circumstances in which a labourer, named Walter Weeks, lost his life while at work in Portsmouth Dockyard on the afternoon of Friday last; whether there are any regulations in force in the Royal Dockyards forbidding men to adjust straps of the kind that this man was adjusting at the time of the accident while the machinery is in motion; whether arrangements could be made for re-adjusting such straps while machinery is in motion without any risk of danger to life; and, if so, 1079 whether the Admiralty will consider the advisability of at once carrying out such arrangements; and, what compensation will be made to the widow and children of the deceased Walter Weeks?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex. Ealing)I regret to say that Walter Weeks lost his life from becoming entangled among the machinery while adjusting the strap for turning some portion of it. There are no regulations forbidding men to adjust the straps while the machinery is in motion, and it would hardly be practicable to carry them out if they existed. Arrangements for adjusting the straps without risk are, as far as possible, already made, and this is shown by the scarcity of accidents from this cause occurring at the several yards. Any improvements in the existing arrangements which suggest themselves would, as far as possible, be carried out. The compensation that can be made to the widow and children must be governed by the regulations laid down for accident cases. The amount will not be known until the circumstances are fully reported.