Clause 10 - Accident regulations
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
10:00 am
Mr Don Foster (Bath, Liberal Democrat)
Liberal Democrats are accused of using all sorts of parliamentary procedures to raise issues and then disseminating them in our infamous ''Focus'' leaflets, but the hon. Lady's raising of the rumoured
closure of Portland helicopter base beats even some of our attempts in Committee and on the Floor of the House.
The hon. Lady has moved an interesting amendment, suggesting that the way in which statistics on road accidents and incidents are collated should be used as a model for railways. I do not believe that it is necessarily a good model for us to follow. As she rightly says, data are collected under stats19, but if she studies the data in any detail she will see that they are relatively crude and simplistic. It is not really possible to glean from analysing the data the sort of helpful proposals that she mentioned.
The hon. Lady was right to say that it is important that such data be compiled and analysed in great detail. I hope that we will see improvements in the way road accident and incident data is gathered and analysed. The Committee will be interested—and, I am sure, Mr. Hurst, you will be delighted—to know that on Monday I was trudging through deep snow in Stockholm. My reason for going there was specifically to look at how the Swedish Government are using the collation of information on road accidents to influence vision zero, which is their scheme to reduce the number of road accidents.
The Committee will doubtless be interested to know that the Swedish Government have just established a new organisation called Strada, which is designed to bring together all the road accident and incident statistical data, not only from the police but from other bodies, including hospitals. That will be of particular relevance in respect of today's debate about data from hospitals on gunshot wounds being collated for police work.
In the same way, it is vital to ensure that detailed data on our railways are collected and that adequate information is available. I am sure that the hon. Lady is aware that such data are already collected by Railway Safety, which produces a statistical bulletin. The issue for the Minister is to give the Committee an assurance that, with the additional benefit of the work from the RAIB, we will look at ways of developing statistical analysis to ensure that we learn some significant lessons for the future improvement of rail safety.
I give an example. Strada was surprised to discover that the side of the road is more significant that previously thought. In a large number of accidents, the degree of injury was increased significantly where there were boulders on the side of the road. As a result of that research, a major programme to clear the sides of roads has begun. I am sure that other examples may arise from appropriately detailed analysis of railway statistics.
We are not minded to support the hon. Lady's amendment because we do not believe that the example she has chosen is a good one to follow. I am using this opportunity to try to obtain from the Minister a clear assurance that much more detailed gathering and analysis of statistics is intended.
I end by giving an example of where much more detailed information on the railways could be gathered and analysed. The Minister may be aware—I have received parliamentary answers on the matter—that many incidents on the railways that have led to deaths and serious injuries were the result of vandalism or the starting of fires. The Minister will also be aware that in many of those cases there is no statistical data to tell us where such incidents occur. It is therefore not possible to identify the hot spots of that sort—or black spots as the hon. Lady referred to them in relation to the roads—on the railways. Much progress is needed in that area. Will the Minister assure us that improvements will be made?