Mr. MartinTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will place in the Library a list of all accidents to personnel on oil rigs since the Piper Alpha tragedy.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonI have today placed in the Library a list of fatal and serious accidents on offshore installations which were notified to my Department under the Offshore Installations (Inspectors and Casualties) Regulations 1973 during the period from 6 July 1988 to 3 December 1989. A further 774 incidents involving less serious injuries resulting in an absence from work for a continuous period of three days were also notified to my Department.
On 3 December 1989 there were 141 fixed and 71 mobile installations operating on the United Kingdom continental shelf. The latest figures for the number of persons emplpoyed offshore are those for June 1988 when the Inland Revenue estimated that the total workforce was 29,300. The serious accident rate per 1,000 employees was 2.9 in 1988 and is 2.3 for the period from 1 January to 3 December 1989.