§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Keighley on 15 December 1978 that information on accidents 432W attributable to the lifting of heavy loads investigated by Her Majesty's Factory Inspectorate was not available, why the Health and Safety Commission now fails to record these accidents and investigations in such a form as to make such information available to Parliament.
§ Mr. John GrantThe chairman of the Health and Safety Commission informs me that for the purposes of developing policy a statistical analysis is made of all accidents reported to Her Majesty's Factory Inspectorate but the inspectorate has no operational or statistical need for a regular analysis, by cause, of those accidents investigated by inspectors. Special inquiries would be necessary to provide information in the form sought. The Health and Safety Executive is currently engaged in the development of a computer system which will make this information easier to obtain.
§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Employment why, in his reply to the hon. Member for Keighley of 15 December 1978, he said that no information for earlier years was available on lifting accidents resulting in back injury, when detailed information was given in his reply of 5 November 1975 to the hon. Member for Keighley which listed such injuries, including slipped discs, for 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974.
§ Mr. John GrantThe chairman of the Health and Safety Commission confirms that the information requested is not available, though it will be available in future as the result of the introduction of a new accident coding system last year. The figures given in 1975 covered all accidents
involving strains, sprains, etc. to the trunk "; it was made clear in the answer that it was not possible to distinguish among them those attributable to lifting heavy loads.