§ Mr. CryerI beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely,
the report of the Health and Safety Executive on the leakage of radioactive liquid into the ground of British Nuclear Fuels Limited, Wind-scale, 15 March 1979.The matter is important, because health and safety matters are rarely debated in the House. They are of great importance, because many more days are lost through industrial injury than through strike action and industrial action. However, the Government have wasted many hours of parliamentary time with legislation on industrial injury.The matter is urgent, because the House should debate the issues that are raised in the report on the procedures, methods and lack of safety that led to radioactive contamination of a level that would have killed anyone who had been placed in the soil that was contaminated.
The matter is urgent, because we have a Government who are hell-bent on embarking on a programme of 10 fast-breeder reactors with a Nuclear Installations Inspectorate that is below strength 559 because of Government cuts in health and safety expenditure as well as other expenditure.
The matter is important and urgent, because we want to ensure that we do not have, through laxity or failure to meet standards, a Three-Mile Island incident in Britain. It behoves Parliament to ensure that the report does not, like many other health and safety reports, merely gather dust without any debate.
Parliament would seem to be prepared to debate such urgent and important matters only when a grave accident occurs, with consequent loss of life and limb. Radioactivity is a serious issue. The House should discuss it, so that suitable publicity can be given and remedial action can be taken. In particular, the Health and Safety Executive appears to be so complacent that no prosecutions are being undertaken.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he thinks should have urgent consideration, namely,
the report of the Health and Safety Executive on the leakage of radioactive liquid into the ground of British Nuclear Fuels Limited, Wind-scale, 1 March 1979.As the House knows, I do not decide whether these matters are discussed. I merely decide whether they are to be discussed tonight or tomorrow night. The hon. Gentleman has raised an important issue, and the whole House is aware of that. However, I have to rule that the hon. Gentleman's submission does not fall within the provisions of the Standing Order and, therefore, I cannot submit his application to the House.