HC Deb 18 October 1912 vol 42 cc1601-2W
Mr. COOPER

asked 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. McKENNA

The 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 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.