HC Deb 24 May 1989 vol 153 c573W
Mr. Meacher

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will investigate the reasons for the differences in death, serious injury and ill-health rates on construction sites with the highest and lowest rates.

Mr. Nicholls

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not record fatal accident, serious injury or ill-health rates for individual construction sites and, therefore, the sites with the highest and lowest rates cannot be identified.

However, the "Blackspot Construction" report published by the HSE in June 1988 analysed the circumstances of 739 deaths in the construction industry between 1981 and 1985 and showed that 70 per cent. could have been avoided by positive management action.

Mr. Meacher

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in theOfficial Report provisional figures for 1988–89 giving (a) the number of fatalities and (b) the number of major injuries (i) in the London region and (ii) nationally for the construction industry.

Mr. Nicholls

Figures for 1988–89 are in the process of compilation but are not yet available.

Mr. Meacher

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment he has made of the reasons why death and serious injuries in local authority direct labour buiding works are lower than in private industry.

Mr. Nicholls

Comparisons of the kind the hon. Member has in mind would be meaningless, even if reliable and comprehensive figures were available, since the work performed by organisations of different types and size in the construction industry differs substantially.

Mr. Meacher

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if, pursuant to his statement in the House on 11 April,Official Report, columns 833–34, on the correlation between firms with good safety standards and those that are successful, he will publish in the Official Report the names of the successful companies giving examples of their good safety record and stating whether the companies recognise trade unions.

Mr. Nicholls

The information requested is not available. As I pointed out in my statement to the House on 11 April, the correlation between good safety standards and other positive aspects of firms' performance is based on the experience and observations of HSE inspectors.