§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Employment what has ben the total of fatal and non-fatal industrial injuries in each of the last five years; and what was the annual expenditure from public funds on accident prevention and on research into accident prevention, respectively, in industry in each of these years.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithThe totals of industrial injuries reported to the Factory Inspectorate in the last five years were as follows:
TOTAL REPORTED ACCIDENTS Year Fatal Non-Fatal 1968 … … 625 311,805 1969 … … 649 321,741 1970 … … 556 304,039 1971 … … 525 268,307 1972 … … 468 257,669 A large part of the work of the Factory Inspectorate is directed towards the prevention of accidents and injury to health. This work cannot be separated from its other duties and is not costed separately. The approximate total cost of maintaining the Factory Inspectorate in the last five financial years was as follows:
Year £m. 1968–69 … … … … 3.4 1969–70 … … … … 4.5 1970–71 … … … … 5.1 1971–72 … … … … 5.7 1972–73 … … … … 6.0 The expenditure from public funds on research into accident prevention commissioned from outside bodies was in each of the last five years approximately as follows:
Year £ 1968–69 … … … … 7,600 1969–70 … … … … 7,800 1970–71 … … … … — 1971–72 … … … … 15,400 1972–73 … … … … 6,000 The 1971–72 figure arose mainly from a research project into safety training.
Details of the cost of staff time devoted to internal research and development 341W work are not available for each of the last five years. In 1971–72 this cost was estimated to be about £60,000.