§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is his assessment of the effect of drying out of a length of self-healing cable on its usefulness to the railways inspectorate inquiry into the Severn tunnel accident on 7 December.
§ Mr. FreemanThe cable in question was stored at British Rail's laboratory at Reading for as long as was necessary to arrange a programme of tests, which would identify possible faults without causing further damage or concealing evidence of other problems. Storage of the cable for any length of time in laboratory conditions could cause the latex-like insulation on the individual wires in the cable to reseal, so tests were conducted as soon as possible with both British Rail and HM railway inspectorate engineers being present. The tests have now been successfully completed.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will instruct the railways inspectorate to make available immediately to(a) the British Rail national inquiry and (b) independent inspection the length of self-healing cable from signal box 164 suspected to be part of the cause of the signalling failure which may have led to the accident in the Severn tunnel on 7 December.
§ Mr. FreemanThe accident is being investigated both internally by British Rail and independently by the Health and Safety Executive's HM railway inspectorate. The cable in question has now been examined in detail by engineers from both organisations working together in a British railways laboratory.