§ 2. Mr. Rhys Daviesasked the Minister of Labour the number of fatal and nonfatal accidents, respectively, in factories for 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942; and the percentage of accidents to the total employed for each year?
§ The Minister of Labour (Mr. Ernest Bevin)Accidents reported under the Factories Act were for 1939, 1,104 fatal and 192,371 non-fatal; for 1940, 1,372 fatal and 230,607 non-fatal; for 1941, 1,646 fatal and 269,652 non-fatal and for 1942, 1,363 fatal and 313,267 non-fatal. Numbers employed are constantly changing, and I can only say that the percentage of such accidents to the total employed was roughly 3.4 in 1940 and 3.8 in 1941.
§ Mr. DaviesIs my right hon. Friend satisfied that he has a sufficient number of inspectors who are able to do the work for 1206 which they were appointed rather than to look atter A.R.P. and kindred problems in factories?
§ Mr. BevinI do not think there are sufficient factory inspectors, but the difficulty is one of man-power at the moment. I have, however, done a good deal in relation to safety through personnel managers in our factories who have supplemented factory inspectors to a considerable extent.