§ 32. Mr. Rankinasked the Minister of Aviation what was the reason for the delay in publication of the Survey of the 19 Accidents to Aircraft of the United Kingdom in 1958.
§ Mr. RipponThe delay was due to pressure of more urgent work. Future surveys will be published more promptly.
§ Mr. RankinWill not the hon. Gentleman tell us what was the nature of the urgent work that prevented the publication of this survey at an appropriate time? Is it not the case that a survey is undertaken so that we may learn something from it that will prevent accidents? Was it not rather unfortunate that, when in 1958 notifiable and fatal accidents were higher in number than ever before, it should have taken two years to get a survey into circulation?
§ Mr. RipponThe more urgent work is the preventive and remedial work which follows the accident. The statistical work is done by the same staff, and that has accounted for the delay in the publication of the survey. The staff position has now improved. We hope that the 1959 survey will be available at the end of this month; the 1960 survey should be available before the end of the year.