HC Deb 01 May 1963 vol 676 cc1052-3
10. Mr. Stodart

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland to what extent road accidents involving motor vehicles are classified and recorded by his Department.

Mr. Noble

Particulars of all road accidents involving personal injury are reported by the police, and various statistics based on these reports are published either monthly or annually. I am sending the hon. Member a copy of the most recent report.

Mr. Stodart

Would not my right hon. Friend agree that it is of great importance to keep records determining the cause of accidents to try to eliminate those accidents? Is he further aware that when I asked his hon. Friend the Joint Under-Secretary of State whether or not he could give particulars of accidents caused by vehicles parked on the roads he told me that he was unable to do so? Will my right hon. Friend see that records of this kind are kept, with a view to reducing the number of road casualties?

Mr. Noble

As I think my hon. Friend appreciates, it is difficult to know in what form to keep records and yet keep them within some sort of bounds. Last year parked cars were directly responsible for four out of 617 fatal accidents. It is very likely that parked cars might have been minor but contributory factors in others. If we tried to keep statistics covering all possible points we should probably get bogged down.

Mr. Steele

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the form sent to his office contains about eighty different replies to various questions? Is he also aware that there are no full-time officials in his office to handle this matter, and until it is properly handled no work will be done on getting results from the local authorities or any useful information out of these statistics?

Mr. Noble

As far as I am aware, the police and the Road Research Laboratory try to tabulate all information collected about accidents.