§ 23. Mr. Beswickasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation the number of staff engaged in his Department in the Accident Investigation and Safety branches; what were the comparable figures for 1951; and how many of the staff appointed since 1951 have engineering or other technical qualifications.
§ Mr. WatkinsonThe Civil Aviation Accidents Investigation Branch of my Ministry has a technical staff of 21. A selection for one further appointment has recently been made. The comparable figure for 1951 was 19.
All those appointed since 1951 have had the appropriate technical qualifications.
§ Mr. BeswickProbably I do not have the definitions correct, but are there not two departments, one dealing with safety and one with accidents? Can the Minister give the figures separately?
§ Mr. WatkinsonYes, Sir. The Civil Aviation Ground Services staff, which is 422 the technical name, has a staff of over 400 and is primarily concerned with air safety too. The figures I gave to the hon. Member represent the work of the staff of the Accidents Investigation Branch. I thought he probably wanted to know about the people who went out and did the work when an air accident occurs. In that case, the number is twenty-one—twenty-two including a recent appointment. We should like to raise the figure to twenty-four, which we think would be adequate.