11. Mr. Leeasked the Minister of Labour whether he will make a statement as to the progress made by appropriate firms in the installation of fire-fighting equipment.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service (Mr. Robert Carr)Certain Regulations made under the Factories Acts dealing with processes involving high risk of fire require the provision of fire extinguishing 780 equipment. I have no reason to think that firms subject to these Regulations fail to comply with these requirements. The question of extending the requirement to provide fire-fighting equipment to other cases is under consideration.
Mr. LeeThe hon. Gentleman will remember that at the time of the Keighley fire quite a number of quite shocking revelations were made about the way in which the Factory Acts were being evaded in this respect. It was rather to that point that I was addressing my Question. Can he say whether any progress has been made since then in the review which the Ministry promised to undertake and which the factory inspectors, I understood, were carrying out?
§ Mr. CarrA good deal of progress has been made, as I have said in reply to Questions on a number of previous occasions. I do not think that the failures to which the hon. Gentleman refers come into this particular category. As far as we are aware, there is no reason to believe that the obligation to have fire-fighting appliances is being neglected.