§ MR. KEIR HARDIE (Merthyr Tydvil)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the number of accidents due to blasting and other operations during the past five years in the Channel Islands; and what inquiries are instituted when such accidents have a fatal termination?
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I have communicated with the Lieutenant Governors of Jersey and Guernsey, and have received the following information:—No accident due to blasting, either fatal or non-fatal, is known to have occurred in Jersey during the past five years. If such an accident happened and had a fatal termination, proceedings termed "Levées de corps," which correspond to a coroner's inquest, would immediately be held by the "vicomte" on a warrant issued by the bailiff. In Guernsey and Alderney there have been, respectively, five and three fatal accidents during the same period. No official record is kept of blasting accidents which do not end fatally. In the case of a fatal accident, an inquest is held in Guernsey by the Royal Court under the presidency of the bailiff, in Alderney by the Court of Alderney, under the presidency of the judge.