§ Mr. Lewis Stevensasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether the independent evaluation of the Manpower Services Commission's accident statistics for the youth opportunities programme has been completed; and what are its main conclusions.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonResearchers from Aston university were commissioned to examine a 10 per cent. sample of the accident reports held by the commission relating to injuries sustained by trainees on the youth opportunities programme between April 1980 and March 1983. Their report, which has now been received, a copy154W of which I am placing in the House of Commons Library, concludes that of the accidents notified to the commission, 65 per cent. fulfilled the criteria for reporting to the Health and Safety Executive under the Notification of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1980. The report examines accident incidence rates for YOP trainees and for employees generally, and concludes that on the sample analysed, comparisons can be made only with substantial reservations. In particular insufficient data were available to draw valid comparisons. I understand that the commission proposes to fund a further study of a larger sample of reports for which the results should be available later this year.