HC Deb 18 October 1993 vol 230 c24 3.39 pm
Mr. Peter Hardy (Wentworth)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 20 for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, mine safety.

My interests in that matter have been frequently declared. My argument today is not related to legalities, but concerns the role and relevance of this House. The matter is serious, because it relates to peril of death and risk of injury in mining operations today. It is both specific and urgent, because there should be immediate concern about the order slickly laid by Ministers immediately after the House rose for the summer recess, which allowed British Coal to act with alacrity and announce that the new arrangements would take effect before the House had an opportunity to consider the matter, and before British Coal had published the relevant codes of practice.

The kernel of the case may lie in a debate on mine safety that took place in the House on 25 April 1989. During that debate, I referred to comments by the senior responsible board member, whom I quoted as saying: My managers will not slavishly follow the code of practice … I will send out instructions that will supersede these codes."—[Official Report, 25 April 1989; Vol. 151, c. 915.] That statement appeared to make it quite clear that British Coal, not Parliament, would determine the rules of safe practice in the industry.

The next day, British Coal issued a statement which, I recall, did not exactly deny my quotation, but which appeared to make it clear that British Coal would not act in a manner contemptuous of this House. However, it has done so in support of new rules that go far beyond its suggestion to the Select Committee that it simply wanted the removal of the 1908 Act.

Since then, Ministers have publicly suggested that the new arrangements are an improvement, and that they followed protracted consultation. However, those Ministers were aware, and should have acknowledged, that those consultations created great uncertainty, deep anxiety and extensive doubt, and that they received downright rejection from large sections of the industry.

Given the assurances on mine safety offered to this House by the President of the Board of Trade in March, we are entitled to suggest that Ministers, as well as British Coal, have acted unworthily. Things have been done that are at worst deplorable and at best suspect. Therefore, Madam Speaker, I believe that my request is entirely justified.

Madam Speaker

I have listened carefully to what the hon. Member for Wentworth (Mr. Hardy) said, but I must give my decision without stating any reasons. I am afraid that I do not consider that the matter that the hon. Gentleman raised is appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 20 and I therefore cannot submit his application to the House.