9. Mr. Edward M. Taylorasked the Minister of Transport what was the average number of persons employed by British Railways in 1968 and 1964, respectively; and what was the total number of reportable accidents in the industry in each of these years.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. Neil Carmichael)I assume the hon. Member is concerned with casualties to railway staff. The provisional figures for 1968 were 59 killed and 6,448 injured, out of a staff of 304,905 at the end of the year. In 1964 there were 93 killed and 10,735 injured out of a staff of 399,005.
Mr. Edward M. TaylorTo what extent has this welcome improvement been the result of the introduction of automatic track maintenance? Can the Parliamentary Secretary say how the accident rate in railway workshops compares with the general pattern for engineering?
§ Mr. CarmichaelIf the hon. Member will give notice of the second part of his question I shall certainly find the answer for him. The various measures taken by the railway management over the last few years have been largely proven by the figures for accidents reducing per 1,000 employees from 32 in 1964 to about 22 in 1968. Many steps have been taken in propaganda about safety on the railways and the staff and others have done very much to improve these figures.