Clause 8 - Regulations
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Don Foster (Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful, Mr. Hurst, for that slight slap on the wrist, but I am arguing that another investigation is going to be set up and we need to examine how different investigations interrelate. Briefly, industry bodies may themselves be conducting an investigation but another form of investigation—a public inquiry—may also take place. I tabled this probing amendment to elicit from the Minister how, in the light of the new rail accident investigation branch, he views the establishment of public inquiries in future.
The amendment is simple and I intentionally selected an incident rather than an accident to highlight the potential need for a public inquiry even for an incident—a point raised by the Royal National Institute of the Blind in its excellent briefing. Does the Minister envisage the chief inspector recommending a public inquiry to the Secretary of State? Will the current arrangements need to be changed to establish a public inquiry into the railways? At the moment, any such public inquiry would be set up as a result of section 14 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974. It would be conducted under section 14(2)(b) according to procedures laid down by regulations that were published in 1975. The problem with those is that they give the power to the Health and Safety Commission, with the consent of the Secretary of State, to arrange for there to be such a public inquiry.
The amendment is worded to ensure that there is nothing that would prevent the Secretary of State from arranging a public inquiry into an accident or an incident—an incident is referred to in the amendment—following the setting up of the rail accident investigation branch.