§ Mr. Roebuckasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a study of the relative hazards of strike-anywhere matches and those which ignite only on contact with a specially-prepared surface.
§ Mr. EnnalsA study was made for my Department by the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment some years ago. It showed that matches sold as safety matches can be struck on a wide variety of surfaces and offer little or no advantage in this respect over strike-anywhere matches.
§ Mr. Roebuckasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will take steps, by legislation or otherwise, to prohibit the sale of matches to children under the age of 15 years.
§ Mr. EnnalsLegislation would be required; and quite apart from the practical difficulties of enforcement, there is no evidence that it would achieve any significant decrease in the number of fires believed to be caused by children.
§ Mr. Roebuckasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) 139W whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table showing for each year since 1956 the number of fires caused by children playing with matches, the number of deaths and other casualties, an estimate of the financial loss resulting from such fires, and similar statistics relating to children playing with kitchen gas lighters and cigarette lighters;
FIRES ATTENDED BY FIRE BRIGADES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Year Fires in buildings Fires not in buildings Number of fires Fatal casualties (in dwellings only) Non-fatal caslualties (in dwellings only) (Casualties not known) Number of fires 1956 … … … 3,612 not available not available 18,304 1957 … … … 4,887 " " 14,157 1958 … … … 5,032 " " 15,236 1959 … … … 6,840 " " 43,942 1960 … … … 7,072 " " 18,716 1961 … … … 8,922 " " 22,448 1962 … … … 8,812 3 23 29,056 1963 … … … 8,814 13 48 23,316 1964 … … … 12,338 14 58 40,824 1965 … … … 13,518 37 140 35,224 1966 … … … 15,219 34 162 26,012
OTHER FIRES STARTED BY MATCHES Year Fires in buildings Fires not in buildings Number of fires Fatal casualties (in dwellings only) Non-fatal caslualties (in dwellings only) (Casualties not known) Number of fires 1956 … … … 844 not available not available 1,456 1957 … … … 681 " " 583 1958 … … … 616 " " 424 1959 … … … 760 " " 1,560 1960 … … … 712 " " 608 1961 … … … 782 " " 708 1962 … … … 782 7 16 814 1963 … … … 834 13 24 568 1964 … … … 898 7 32 1,128 1965 … … … 860 10 48 766 1966 … … … 901 10 55 532