§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many deaths have resulted from accidents involving inflatable dinghies and airbeds in the last five years.
§ Mr. HowardThe only information available at reasonable cost relating specifically to fatal accidents involving inflatable dinghies and airbeds is produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. It is based on drownings reported in the local press and may therefore miss some cases. The figures available for drownings involving an inflatable, which would exclude professional inflatable craft, are as follows:
Numbers 1983 3 1984 7 1985 5 1986* 3 *To date. The Royal Life Saving Society produced information on drownings in 1982 and 1983 based on police reports. These include a category called "playing on rafts and inflatables" for which they recorded the following numbers:
Numbers 1982 7 1983 8