§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will place in the Library a list of incidents on the railways of London Underground Limited since 1 January 1986 when electrical, mechanical or human failure put passengers' safety at direct risk.
§ Mr. David MitchellPrescribed accidents that occur on the railways of London Underground Limited (LUL) are reportable to the Secretary of State under statutory instrument. Many of these incidents are of a minor nature and are not required to be reported individually. All reported accidents are contained within the statistics published in the Department's annual report on the safety record of the railways in Great Britain, a copy of which is in the Library. The table lists those incidents where passenger safety was put at direct risk: only two resulted in serious injury to a passenger.
Subsequently I am only too sadly aware of the serious fire that occurred at King's Cross on 18 November. This incident is not included in the table; it will, however, be the subject of a formal inquiry and a report will be published in due course. 699W
Cause Number of incidents 1986 1987 Technical fault Lift and escalator 2 3 Train 1 2 Track — 1 Human error Staff 1 1 Other persons 2 3 Vandalism 13 8 Minor fires in tunnels 3 4