HC Deb 17 December 1987 vol 124 cc660-1W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish statistics for the number of(a) fatal and (b) other accidents in the British steel industry since 1977 and any comparable information available to him about Japan.

Mr. Nicholls

The available information for reported accidents to employees in the iron and steel industry in Great Britain is as follows. Comparable figures for Japan are not available.

Reported occupational injuries to employees in the iron and steel industry (Minimum List Heading 311 of Standard Industrial Classification 1968) in Great Britain
Resulting in:
Death Major injury2 Absence from work of over three days3
1977 32 ֵ 11,050
1978 24 ֵ 10,264
1979 27 ֵ 9,183
19801 7 ֵ 5,365
1981 14 318 5,640

Resulting in:
Death Major injury2 Absence from work of over three days3
1982 19 247 4,505
1983 7 223 ֵ
1984 15 230 ֵ
1985 7 246 ֵ
ֵ Not available.
1 Figures affected by three month national steel strike (January to March).
2 As defined under the Notification of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, 1980.
3 For 1977–80, as reported to Her Majesty's Factory Inspectorate; for 1981–82, resulting in claims for industrial injury benefit.

Figures for 1986–87 are provisional and were collected under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1985 (RIDDOR). This introduced a wider definition of "major injuries" and there are no figures available for the iron and steel industry so that the wider category of "metal manufacturing" is used. The figures under that category are 16 fatalities, 533 major injuries and 3,814 "over three days" injuries.