§ Mr. BradshawTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what the annual average figure was of serious injuries and deaths on the railways per passenger mile travelled in the two decades preceding privatisation; and what has been the annual average figure since privatisation. [144823]
§ Mr. HillThis information can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Death and injury rates for passengers on Britain's railways can be found in the Chief Inspector of Railways' Annual Reports on railway safety, copies of which are held in both Libraries of the House. The tables list these rates, which were first published in the 1994–95 Annual Report and date back to 1989. But due to the various changes in accident reporting arrangements over the years, comprehensive data on serious injury rates have not been available since 1996–97.
191W
Train incidents per billion passenger miles Movement incidents per billion passenger miles Non-movement incidents per billion passenger miles Year Killed Injured Killed Injured Killed Injured 1996–97 0.04 6.67 0.48 20.71 1.79 1,019.68 1997–98 0.24 6.5 0.51 21 2.24 1,086.2 1998–99 0 1.31 0.56 21.84 1.6 1,048.05 1999–2000 0.9 9 0.43 17.67 2.01 945.28 Notes:
1. The introduction of the Reporting of Injuries and Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) in 1996–97 resulted in a change of injury class for members of the pubic including passengers. There is now no distinction between a major and minor injury, the reporting trigger being that the injured person is removed from the site of the accident to hospital immediately.
2. The rates shown in the tables are for injuries to passengers on all railways in Great Britain broken down into train accidents, movement accidents and non-movement accidents. Train and movement accident rates are related to billions of passenger miles. Non-movement accidents are shown per billion passenger journeys as that figure relates more closely to the use of stations.
3. Train accidents are—collisions, derailments, trains running into obstructions, fires on board trains and missile damage to drivers cab windows. Movement accidents are injuries caused by the train but not falling in the category of train accidents, e.g. passengers falling out of a train door while the train is travelling between stations. Non-movement accidents do not involve trains, e.g. passengers falling on platforms at stations.