§ MR. GLOVER (St. Helens)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the number of times the inspectors and assistant inspectors of mines have inspected the mines during 1906 in the United Kingdom, without any connection with any accident, the number of inspections made in cases of fatal accidents and nonfatal accidents, the number of inquests the inspectors and assistant inspectors have attended during 1906, and the number of times they have attended the police courts during 1906.
140 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The number of inspections of mines made by the inspectors of 1906 (excluding those of one inspector who retired in the course of the year and for whom the figures are not available.) was as follows:—(a) in connection with accidents, fatal or non fatal, 2,889; (b) otherwise than in connection with accidents, 5,785. The number of inquests on mining accidents attended in 1906 was 1,032; and the number of attendances at police or sheriff courts in mining cases, 37. One inspector is unable to distinguish the number of inspections in connection with 141 non-fatal accidents in coal mines, and they are therefore included under (b). It will be understood that when visiting a mine to investigate the circumstances of an accident an inspector would often take the opportunity of inspecting generally the workings of the mine.