HC Deb 03 February 2000 vol 343 c659W
Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many recommendations of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch have been implemented in the last 10 years. [108033]

Mr. Mullin

The recommendations of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch are in a variety of formats, including suggestions that reviews or research be carried out: for this reason there is no standard definition of whether a recommendation has been implemented or not. The Civil Aviation Authority has recorded its responses to those recommendations addressed to the Authority in terms of "fully accepted", "partially accepted" and "not accepted". Since 1 January 1990, 473 recommendations to the Authority have been fully or partially accepted and 66 not accepted.

It is not possible to give comparable information in respect of those safety recommendations addressed over the last 10 years to other organisations, such as foreign aviation authorities, as they may respond in a variety of ways. The CAA has agreed that, in future, its annual Progress Report on safety recommendations addressed to the Authority should include such information as is available on actions taken by other bodies in response to safety recommendations, in order to provide the public with a more complete picture of progress on all AAIB safety recommendations.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many recommendations made by the Air Accident Investigation Branch relate to the Manchester 737 accident. [108034]

Mr. Mullin

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch's report on the accident to the Boeing 737, G-BEJL, at Manchester Airport on 22 August 1985 was published as Aircraft Accident Report 8/88 on 13 March 1989; it contained 31 safety recommendations.