§ Mr. ARTHUR HENDERSON (Durham, Barnard Castle)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what number or percentage of the 123,230 non-fatal accidents reported in 1907 were made the subject of special investigation by factory inspectors.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The information asked for by the hon. Member is not available, and could only be obtained by a laborious examination of the district records. I may explain, however, that all accidents due to power machinery and other special causes, about one-third of the total number, are investigated on the spot by the certifying surgeon. The surgeon reports to the inspector, who then decides whether a further inquiry on his part is necessary. A vast number of the reported accidents are of a trivial character, and even if an investigation of each were possible it could seldom, from the nature of most of them, result in any preventive measures being taken. Perhaps I may refer the hon. Member in this connection to the Report of the Departmental Committee on the Notification of Industrial Accidents which was issued in 1902 (Cd. 998).