§ MR. PONSONBY (Stirling Burghs)I beg to ask the Lord-Advocate if he can now state whether a further public 1232 inquiry will be instituted into the facts and circumstances connected with the death of Robert Adamson, in November last year, by the collapse of a brick arch in the Dalbeath Pit, belonging to the Fife Coal Company; and whether he will consider the advisability of issuing an order allowing the representatives of injured or deceased workmen to get access to the locus of an accident immediately after it happens.
§ MR. THOMAS SHAWI have gone into this case and laid my views upon it before the Home Office. I am glad to inform my hon. friend that my right hon. friend the Home Secretary has instructed the holding of a public inquiry under Section 45 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887. I attach also much importance to the second portion of the question and should hope that the point as to workmen's representatives having a right to inspect the locus of an accident may be helpfully elucidated in the forthcoming inquiry.