§ MR. JOHN ELLIS (Nottinghamshire, Rushcliffe)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he will state the steps taken by his Department to carry out the 1901 Act for the better prevention of accidents to railway servants, particularly in respect of the making of Rules under Section 1; the inspection of railways under Section 13; and the making of inquiries and experiments under Section 15.
†The Return referred to was as follows:—"Return, by Counties, of Offences committed in England under the following heads: Homicide—(a) murder; (b) manslaughter; firing at the person; attempt to murder; assault on the police; aggravated assault; assault endangering life; assault on bailiffs and process servers; cutting or maiming the person; incendiary fire; burglary and housebreaking; robbery; taking and holding forcible possession; cattle stealing; sheep stealing; killing, cutting, or maiming cattle; demand or robbery of arms.; riots and affrays; unlawful assembly; administering unlawful oaths; intimidation—(a) by threatening letters and notices; (b) otherwise; pound breach; attacking
§ MR. GERALD BALFOUREarly in 1901 the Board appointed a small Committee for the purpose of preparing draft rules under the provisions of the Act in question. Lord James of Hereford, the Chairman of the Royal Commission on whose Report the Act was founded, presided over this Committee. The draft rules so prepared were submitted to the Board in April of last year, and were thereupon made public in pursuance of the Act. Objections to these rules were lodged with the Board before the prescribed date by thirty-six railway companies, thirty-nine joint committees of railway companies, and five other bodies. These objections were referred to Lord James of Hereford and two officers of the Board. Their consideration and the hearings, which, as the Act provides, were given to objectors, necessarily occupied considerable time, and revised rules were submitted to the Board in January last, and forthwith communicated to the several objectors. Some of these objectors were not satisfied with the manner in which their objections had been met, and eleven notices were received by the Board from parties requiring their objections, or certain of them, to be referred to the Court of the Railway and Canal Commission. These references were duly filed, and will, I am informed, come before the Court for hearing on an early date, probably on the 10th or next month. The additional accident reports required under Section 13 (2) of the Act are being duly furnished by the railway companies, and inquiries are held, where that course appears desirable. Inquiries under the Act have also been held, in various cases, to determine whether certain of the proposed
rules houses; resistance to legal process; injury to property; firing into dwellings; injury to place of worship; injury to or attempt to injure or obstruct railway trains or highways; injury to telegraph wires; perjury; unnatural offences; attempts to commit unnatural offences, between the 1st day of January 1901 and the 31st day of December 1901, showing the number of cases in which Offenders were convicted; the number of cases in which persons were made amenable, but not convicted; the number of cases in which accused are awaiting trial; and the number of cases in which Offenders were neither convicted nor made amenable.1357 should be made applicable, with or without modification, to small railways worked under special conditions. No experiments have yet been made by the Board under Section 15 of the Act, but several railway companies are conducting experiments as to improved appliances, and trials have in many cases been attended and watched by officers of the Department.