HC Deb 06 July 1937 vol 326 cc155-6
11. Mr. Gallacher

asked the Secretary for Mines how many inspections have been made in Fife by workmen's inspectors during 1936 and during the present year to the latest available date?

Captain Crookshank

During the year 1936, a total of 236 inspections was made at 21 mines. During the present year, up to the end of May, 52 inspections were made at 15 mines.

Mr. Gallacher

Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman not aware that these inspections are not only helpful to the men, but to the Government inspectors, and that they were very helpful to the Safety Commission when it visited Fife; and will he not recommend the general application of this rule to all districts throughout the country?

Captain Crookshank

The hon. Member has overlooked the fact that that is more or less the next question which he has on the Paper, to which I am just going to give an answer.

12. Mr. Gallacher

asked the Secretary for Mines whether he has considered the resolutions passed at the National Conference of Scottish Mineworkers directing attention to the importance of workmen's inspectors and urging, while the present democratic method of elections should continue, that these inspectors should be maintained by the State; and what steps does he propose to take to have this matter attended to?

Captain Crookshank

No such resolutions have reached me. In the evidence submitted by the Mines Department to the Royal Commission on Safety, the question how workmen's inspections could be made more general and still more effective was suggested as an important matter for the consideration of the commission. There is no further appropriate step which I could usefully take at this stage.

Mr. Gallacher

Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman not aware that in putting my previous supplementary question, I wanted him to agree with me, and then on this question, I wanted to direct his attention to the proposal in this resolution that workmen's pit inspectors should be paid by the State? Will he give consideration to that?

Captain Crookshank

The people who are giving consideration to all those questions are the Royal Commission at the present time.