§ 2.43 p.m.
§ LORD AILWYNMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the number of road accidents involving personal injury in Great Britain in each of the years subsequent to 1959 in which dogs have been the cause or a contributory cause.]
§ LORD HILTON OF UPTONMy Lords, the number of accidents in which dogs were a contributory cause is not known. The only information available is for fatal and serious personal injury accidents since 1961 in which dogs were reported by the police as being in the carriageway when the accident occurred. For each year from 1961 the numbers were 552, 498, 423, 533, 528, 470, and, in the first nine months of 1967, 377.
§ LORD AILWYNMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for that reply, may I ask him, with great respect, why the figures I asked for are not available? Is the noble Lord aware that I have here detailed figures for all the years from 1949 to 1958, which the Government at that time were able, without difficulty, to produce? Is the noble Lord further aware that the figures he has just given me are no indication whatever of the 201 number of accidents I am asking for? And what, in any case, is the definition of "serious personal injury"?
§ LORD HILTON OF UPTONMy Lords, I am sorry to disappoint the noble Lord, Lord Ailwyn, by being unable to give him all the information for which he asked, although he was kind enough to show me the information he was given ten years ago when he asked a similar Question. The Ministry of Transport, of course, review from time to time the details they ask the police to collect about different kinds of accidents. They ask for more information on fatal and serious accidents, and they try to concentrate on the factors which are causing large numbers of accidents. Clearly, there has been a change here. But I understand that my right honourable friend would not now wish to ask the police for further information about dogs, bearing in mind the rather small extent of the problem.
§ BARONESS EMMET OF AMBERLEYMy Lords, is the Minister aware that in certain counties, for instance, mine, the chief constable gives a quarterly return of all the causes of accidents, including a heading for those in which dogs are involved, and there should really be no difficulty in obtaining this information?
§ LORD HILTON OF UPTONMy Lords, I will look at what the noble Lady has said. Some authorities, of course, are more up to date and have more staff to deal with this sort of thing than others.
§ LORD AILWYNMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord very much for his great efforts, which are most unsatisfactory.