§ Mr. COOPERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the regulations of the Home Office require a manager, under-manager, or other underground official of a coal mine to hold a fireman's certificate, in addition to a first or second class certificate of competency under the Coal Mines Act, 1911, before inspecting a working place and giving permission to a miner to enter it to begin his shift, in the temporary absence of the certified fireman?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe matter is regulated by the Coal Mines Act. Section 64 of the Act requires that the examination before the commencement of a shift must be made by a person who has been appointed to be a fireman, examiner, or deputy; and Section 15 provides that after 1st January next no person can be appointed to be a fireman, examiner, or deputy unless he holds a fireman's certificate under Sub-section (1) (b) of that Section. Unless the person making the examination is required to hold such a certificate, there would be no guarantee that his eyesight, for instance, was such as to enable him to make accurate tests 1602W for fire damp. I may add that in future under the rules, which have been made with my approval by the Board for Mining Examinations, all applicants for managers' or under-managers' certificates will be required to have obtained a fireman's certificate.