Clause 3 - Establishment
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
10:30 am
Mr John Spellar (Minister of State (Transport), Department for Transport; Warley, Labour)
I point out that Her Majesty's rail inspectorate and Health and Safety Executive staff numbers cover rail safety work other than accident investigation. The hon. Member for the Vale of York made a comparison with Ofcom. Of course, there we are dealing with a separate statutory body as opposed to an accident investigation branch that, like the other branches, is part of the Department for Transport. We therefore have made an estimate as to the numbers likely to be involved and the estimated cost of averaging out likely salary levels.
The chief inspector will be able to call in external assistance. We may come to that issue on subsequent amendments. In terms of flexibility, we would not want a branch that was staffed up to deal with every eventuality. It could be dealt with flexibly by external assistance under the guidance of the chief inspector.