§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will now reconsider the decisions made not to establish a public inquiry into the Marchioness disaster of comparable scope to those already conducted into the disasters at King's Cross and Clapham.
§ Mr. NorrisWhen the then Secretary of State considered the need for a public inquiry he concluded that the holding of a formal investigation was unnecessary given that a full, thorough and comprehensive inquiry had been carried out by the marine accident investigation branch—MAIB. Subsequently, the view has remained that a formal investigation would be unlikely to add to the inspector's findings, or to the 27 safety recommendations made in the MAIB report. The position was not changed by anything said in the Hayes report, which made no suggestion that a further inquiry into the accident was needed. I therefore remain of the view that the case for a formal inquiry has not been made.
§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he has anything to add to his answer to the hon. Member for Romford (Sir M. Neubert) of 19 July,Official Report, column 78, concerning universal applications of all the recommendations of the Hayes report on river safety.
§ Mr. NorrisThe Hayes report concerns river safety. The Department publishes an annual schedule, giving details of progress on each recommendation, copies of which are placed in the Library of the House. The next schedule is due to be published in July 1994. In the meantime, action continues on all of the 22 recommendations.