Accident Prevention

HC Deb 01 July 1975 vol 894 cc1174-6

11. Mr. David Watkins

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is being done to raise the general level of awareness of the need for accident prevention at work.

Mr. Harold Walker

The Health and Safety Work etc. Act has established the Health and Safety Commission to plan and arrange the implementation of the wide-ranging powers provided for in the Act. A major part of its effort is already being directed, through the Health and Safety Executive, to raising the level of awareness of the need for accident prevention.

Mr. Watkins

Has my hon. Friend seen the recent TUC statement which points out that on every average working day four people are killed and more than 3,000 are seriously injured at work? Will he therefore seek to ensure that the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act is applied with the maximum emphasis on prevention? I emphasise prevention.

Mr. Walker

My hon. Friend is right to express his concern, as he does on so many occasions, about these appalling figures. In its short life so far, the Health and Safety Commission has done a tremendous amount in terms of publicising the provisions of the Act and the new obligations that it imposes. The details are much too lengthy for me to refer to now. If, however, my hon. Friend would like me to write to him setting out what has been done, I shall be pleased to do so.

Mr. Wells

Will the Minister look at the need to educate people rather than to legislate? There is far too little awareness by the man on the shop floor and on the farm. Legislation is only restrictive. What is needed is education to obey rules.

Mr. Walker

I am second to none in urging the need for wider education in these matters, wider understanding, the provision of courses and publicity. It is perhaps the over-dependence on those aspects and inadequate and unsuitable statutory arrangements which have contributed to the appalling figures to which my hon. Friend the Member for Consett (Mr. Watkins) referred. It seems odd that we should be strictured by a member of the Conservative Party, which last year deprived agricultural workers of the full protection of the new statutory provisions. We shall put the situation right in a short time with the provisions of the Employment Protection Bill.

Mr. Cryer

Does my right hon. Friend agree that one of the ways of raising awareness is to encourage the trade union safety committees to act? Will he bring pressure on the Health and Safety Commission, which has been dilatory about this matter, to issue regulations so that trade unions and employers know where they stand? We should encourage these committees to get cracking so that the appalling level of industrial injuries can be reduced.

Mr. Walker

I agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of the workers' safety representatives and the proposed statutory safety committees and the contribution they can make to an increased awareness and a diminution in the toll of industrial accidents. I share his hope that the commission will make speedy progress during the drafting of the regulations and that in doing so it will have full regard to the Government's declared policy and the provisions embodied in the Employment Protection Bill, which by deleting one part of the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act in this matter should make its task easier. Therefore, I hope that it will respond to the appeal which has been addressed to it from the House, in which I share.

Mr. Farr

Is the Minister aware that while the accident rate in some industries has improved, in agriculture just the opposite has taken place? Is he aware that the rate of fatal accidents per thousand employed in agriculture today is higher than it has been since the war? Will he do something about this?

Mr. Walker

I fully appreciate that the total of accidents in agriculture has grown heavier. This makes it all the more incomprehensible that the hon. Gentleman and his right hon. and hon. Friends last year should have deliberately deprived agricultural workers of the safeguards. I hope that, in the light of what he said, when the Employment Protection Bill reaches its Report stage he will fully support us in extending the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act to safeguard the agricultural workers in his constituency.