HC Deb 16 November 1973 vol 864 cc881-9

12.40 p.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mrs. Peggy Fenner)

I beg to move, That the Agriculture (Tractor Cabs) (Amendment) Regulations 1973, a draft of which was laid before this House on 25th July in the last Session of Parliament, be approved. The Agriculture (Tractor Cabs) (Amendment) Regulations are being introduced under the Agriculture (Safety, Health and Welfare Provisions) Act 1956. Their main objective is to reduce the level of noise inside new tractor safety cabs so that it cannot present a threat to the driver's health.

For many years the overturning tractor has caused more fatal accidents on farms than any other single type of accident. To stem this toll of human life regula- tions were introduced in 1967 requiring, after 1st September 1970, all new tractors to be fitted with safety cabs when first sold to the farmer and when used by a worker. From 1st September 1977 all tractors, including those built before 1970, will have to be fitted with a safety cab when they are used by a worker. Tractors fitted with safety cabs are no longer unfamiliar on the farm, and when tractors have overturned many lives have been saved because safety cabs have been standard fittings. Although more and more powerful tractors are being used in agriculture, the number of fatal accidents caused by overturning tractors last year was the lowest ever recorded. Safety cabs can thus be shown to have saved lives, and I can only urge every farmer to fit a safety cab to his tractor as soon as possible, so that he can enjoy the protection that it gives.

As with many new developments, however, the tractor cab has brought problems as well as benefits. Tractor cabs save lives, but the cab also concentrates the noise of the tractor inside it. The noise inside many of today's cabs can reach a level at which the driver's hearing may be damaged if he drives at full throttle for any length of time. We would all agree that while it is better to have a driver who is made hard of hearing than one subjected to a fatality when a tractor overturns, it is better still if cabs can be made quieter so that a driver need be neither deaf nor subjected to that high risk if his tractor should overturn. This is what these new regulations seek to achieve. Under them, all new tractors sold to the farmer after 1st September 1975 will be required to be fitted with a safety cab in which the noise level at the driver's ear does not exceed 90dBA. Furthermore, after 1st September 1977 the same noise limit will be applied to all other cabs sold for use with pre-1975 tractors. Cabs fitted to these tractors before 1st September 1977 will not, however, have to be exchanged for quiet ones after 1977.

I would like to explain the reasoning behind these provisions. Noise level of 90 dBA has been fixed because it is the level that the Government's Industrial Health Advisory Committee recommends should not be exceeded in normal working conditions. I was interested to see in some technical advice given to help the layman to assess a noise of 90 decibels that it describes the noise of 80 decibels as the noise at one's ear inside a small car and that of 90 decibels as the noise of an Underground train. It is therefore the level adopted in this regulation and by the Department of Employment in its code of practice on noise exposure in factories. The date of 1st September 1975 has been adopted as the earliest feasible date by which manufacturers will be able to reduce the noise level within the cabs fitted to their latest models.

Older tractors provide a difficult problem for the acoustic engineer, as it is technically difficult and, therefore, expensive, to make cabs fitted to older tractors quiet at the driver's ear. This is because to obtain this noise level greater integration of the cab with the tractor will be required, and this is difficult to achieve with a tractor orginally designed and made without a cab. We have therefore decided to allow cabs not covered by this new noise regulation to be fitted to tractors sold for use in agriculture before 1st September 1975 until 1st September 1977 when all tractors used by agricultural workers must be fitted with a safety cab. This will give manufacturers of cabs an extra two years to meet the likely demand from farmers. However, I would want to encourage all farmers not to wait until the deadline before they fit a cab to their old tractor.

Mr. Ronald Bell (Buckinghamshire, South)

Is it the case that after 1977 every tractor must have a a safety cab, or that after then any new cab fitted to a tractor or any new tractor supplied must have a safety cab, but a tractor supplied before 1975 or a new cab supplied to an existing tractor before 1977 can still continue in existence after 1977?

Mrs. Fenner

I listened carefully to my hon. and learned Friend, but he has only succeeded in even further confusing me. However, I will consider that point and ensure that he receives a correct answer to his question.

Mr. Ronald Bell

I was thinking of the regulations that we are discussing, which are merely about noise. My hon. Friend will agree that after 1977 one could still have a tractor with a safety cab, but it would not have to comply with these regulations, would it?

Mrs. Fenner

I shall make certain of that and will write to my hon. Friend. I do not exactly understand his point, although I know he has tried to make it clear.

We have therefore decided to allow cabs not covered by this new noise regulation to be fitted to tractors sold for use in agriculture before 1st September 1975 until 1st September 1977, when all tractors used by agricultural workers must be fitted with a safety cab. A tractor can overturn at any time and a cabless tractor that overturns almost always results in a fatality, whilst the driver of a tractor fitted with a cab almost always survives an overturning.

New technology can be costly, and the protection of tractor drivers from excessive noise will cost money. Quieter cabs will be more expensive cabs, because to achieve lower noise levels new cab designs may be required. Human life is at stake here and we should not measure the situation purely in cash terms. However, a quieter cab will provide a very real gain both to the worker and the employer, and is therefore worth the cost. The worker will gain, because the noise inside the cab will no longer be a threat to his health, and his working environment will be improved. The employer will gain because the driver of a tractor will be able to use the power at his disposal without suffering acute discomfort from the noise in his cab. By thus investing in his worker's well-being, the employer will be able to use his machinery to greater efficiency.

In these regulations we also are providing for certain minor amendments in the original tractor cab regulations. One ensures that tests on cabs are made to the latest revision of the British Standard. The others correct certain anomalies that occur in the existing tractor cab regulations.

I would like, finally, to acknowledge the help that we have received in the preparation of these regulations. Organisations representing both employers and workers have been of great help to us, as has the Agricultural Engineers Association and the individual manufacturers of both tractors and cabs. This is the kind of co-operation towards the achievement of a highly desirable measure that is most heartening to come across yet often so difficult to achieve. We are indeed fortunate in the agriculture industry that such co-operation occurs as often as it does.

12.50 p.m.

Mr. David Clark (Colne Valley)

The co-operation to which the Minister referred crosses the Commons as well. I am pleased to welcome the regulations. The fact that this proposal is non-controversial does not mean that it is unimportant. It is vitally important, and I welcome it on behalf of the Opposition.

Looking round the Chamber, I cannot help remarking on the pedantic numerical sleight of hand by the hon. Member for the Isle of Ely (Mr. Freud), who tried to show that the Liberal Party was better represented in this House today than either of the other two parties. It is interesting to note that the Liberals do not have one representative in the Chamber now.

I am particularly interested in the regulations, not only because they concern agriculture but because the largest single employer in my constituency produces tractors.

Whilst I welcome the regulations, I must put one or two small points to the Minister. First, why must we wait until September 1975 before we can have these new cabs fitted on new tractors? The industry may possibly feel that it cannot produce enough cabs, but it is producing cabs of this high standard already because certain Continental countries to which we export require these standards. Denmark immediately comes to mind in this respect. It seems a long time to wait until September 1975 before this regulation is introduced. Is there no possibility of bringing it forward sooner?

The Minister mentioned extra cost. Obviously we do not know what it will be. At standard rates it could be £50 extra per cab. If so, I agree that this is a small price to pay for a man's hearing, which, ultimately, is what we are concerned about.

It is interesting that we should be discussing the regulations today when only yesterday the growing awareness of noise was further officially recognised in the Government's publication of the Environment Protection Bill, which contains provisions on noise which are greatly welcomed.

I was pleased to hear the Minister's remarks about the reduction in fatalities involving tractors in the agricultural industry last year. The hon. Lady said that fatalities were the lowest for a number of years. This is welcome news indeed. I certainly join the Minister in urging farmers not to wait for these regulations which will make it compulsory to use tractor cabs, but to comply with them as soon as possible.

I am not being churlish, but why must we wait so long for these regulations to come into force? There is enough statistical evidence—especially the work carried out by Professor Burns and Dr. Robinson for the Department of Health and Social Security—to show that hearing deteriorates with constant exposure to noise levels higher than 90 decibels. My argument that the regulations should be brought in as soon as possible is also strengthened and backed by the Department of Employment's code of practice. With larger fields, more mechanisation and larger tractors, the problem will get worse. Noise in a visually attractive area is no less damaging than in the middle of a grimy old factory.

My last point, which is on Regulation 3(b)(2A), is purely technical. Will the Minister give a categorical assurance that she will demand adequate silencing and sound-proofing for certificates issued before 1st September 1977? I gather that there is a query about the wording of that regulation. It would help if she could give that categorical assurance or, if not, would promise to look into the matter and, perhaps, write to me.

The Opposition welcome the regulations. They are a step forward. We would like them to take effect sooner than is proposed—we would always like things sooner—because it seems a long time to wait until September 1975. However, if the regulations help to maintain the health of agricultural workers and the efficiency of the industry we certainly welcome them.

12.57 p.m.

Mr. John Farr (Harborough)

I welcome the regulations relating to noise in tractor cabs. I share the sentiments expressed by the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Mr. David Clark) and my hon. Friend's assurance that she will urge everyone to introduce this system on a voluntary basis well before it becomes law in 1975. I hope that she will redouble her efforts in that respect in the hope that we can get compliance with the spirit, if not the letter, of the law before 1975.

We are considering not the noise of a tractor but noise in a tractor cab. We are concerned not so much about the noise caused by a tractor engine as by the vibration of a metallic cab. Cabs are regarded by everyone working on the land today as absolutely necessary for tractor drivers not only to protect them from the weather but as a useful protection should a tractor overturn.

In welcoming the regulations I should like to call the attention of the House to the number of fatal accidents in the agriculture industry. It is the only industry of which I am aware where the likelihood of fatal accidents has doubled in the last 20 years. Fatal accidents in most industries employing operatives on heavy machinery have markedly reduced in the last 20 years, but on the land they have doubled.

This has been brought about by two factors. The first is the tremendous amount of mechanisation of a great deal of what formerly were simple hand jobs on the land. The second, and perhaps more consequential, is the halving of the labour force in the last 20 years. The annual number of fatalities on farms is almost static—just over 100 every year—but in the last 20 years the labour force has halved. I hope that it will be possible to reverse the trend in the likelihood of an agricultural worker meeting with a fatal accident.

I welcome my hon. Friend's statement that she will encourage compliance with the regulations before the due date in 1975. Let us not forget that every year bigger and more powerful tractor engines come into use. On many ordinary farms today one sees tractors with 120 hp engines. Tractor cabs are to be soundproofed to protect drivers against the continual drumming noise of these powerful engines, but let us not forget the country dweller, nor the dweller on city estates where, for hour after hour, these powerful tractors are at work at the end of the back garden. Let us do our best to encourage manufacturers to improve in every way the silencing of these engines.

1.1 p.m.

Mr. Ronald Bell (Buckinghamshire, South)

I, too, welcome these regulations. They deal solely with the acoustic qualities of tractor cabs, and noise is one of the problems to which we have not paid sufficient attention.

I share the hope of my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Mr. Farr) that tractor noise can be reduced for the sake of people around as well as those driving the machines. The countryside is ceasing to be as quiet as it used to be. With aeroplanes overhead, helicopters flying back and forth, and tractors and combine harvesters pursuing their tasks, one sometimes almost longs for the silence of a great city.

Deafness will be one of the serious problems of the future. Discotheques and dance bands are doing their work every night of every week, and agricultural and industrial machinery is supplementing it. This is something to which we must pay a great deal more attention, and I therefore welcome these regulations.

I now propose to help my hon. Friend in connection with a question that I asked during her speech. She need not trouble to write to give me the answer for which I asked because I have read the regulations and I was right, as is perhaps not entirely unusual. Because that is so, I suggest that the time will come for further regulations, perhaps in 1977 or later, requiring cabs to be acoustically suitable. It is probably right not to lay that down in these regulations, because it could be a little harsh to do so, but the time will come when we must require all tractor cabs to be of this type.

Finally, I hope that my hon. Friend will not mind my telling her the answer to a question asked by the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. David Clark). It is that she cannot give an undertaking about requiring cabs to be of the quality proposed in the regulations before 1977, because they do not give her that power. The wording is tricky. This statutory instrument was before us in the Select Committee on Statutory Instruments yesterday. I regret that that Committee is concerned solely with the words and not with merits. The language may be a little abstruse, but until 1977 it rests in the discretion of the purchaser or the manufacturer to ask for this additional requirement. The Minister cannot require it.

1.4 p.m.

Mrs. Fenner

My hon. and learned Friend the Member for Buckinghamshire, South (Mr. Ronald Bell) knows the law very well, but I should like to reiterate why these dates have been chosen. It is because we recognise that it is not feasible for manufacturers to comply with these requirements earlier than is proposed. I support what was said by the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. David Clark). We want to encourage farmers to instal quiet cabs just as soon as they can.

The hon. Gentleman referred to fatalities. The total number has been reduced considerably. This year there were only five fatalities due to overturning tractors. In the majority of cases the occupant suffered only slight injuries or escaped unhurt.

We are very much concerned with the problem of noise, and, like my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Mr. Farr), I, too, want farmers to comply with the spirit of the regulations before the due date.

I hope that the House will approve the regulations.

Mr. David Clark

Am I right in thinking that the interpretation—

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Robert Grant-Ferris)

Order. Did the Minister give way to the hon. Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. David Clark)?

Mr. Fenner

No, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I had asked the House to approve the regulations.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved, That the Agriculture (Tractor Cabs) (Amendment) Regulations 1973, a draft of which was laid before this House on 25th July in the last Session of Parliament, be approved.