'(1) It shall be the duty of the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) to publish, before the end of each calendar year, a report on safety.

(2) The report referred to in subsection (1) shall include information concerning—

(a) injuries and fatalities suffered by railway passengers, and the ORR's conclusions as to their causes;

(b) injuries and fatalities suffered by persons other than railway passengers resulting from incidents occurring on the railway system, and the ORR's conclusions as to their causes;

(c) any recommendations resulting from consideration by the ORR of the incidents referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b); and

(d) the findings and recommendations contained in the most recent review by the ORR of safety at level crossings.

(3) The review referred to in paragraph (2d) shall be conducted at least annually, before the publication of the report referred to in subsection (1).'.—[Mr. Llwyd]

Brought up, and read the First time.

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

The new clause is very straightforward. It seeks to give the Office of Rail Regulation a duty to spotlight safety issues, which I think is important. I am not being alarmist, but in 2003–04 there was a pronounced increase in the number of incidents in which fewer than five fatalities occurred in the United Kingdom, as compared with the preceding two years. Although there were no major incidents in 2003–04, there were several minor incidents on the network. My hon. Friend Hywel Williams and I know of one or two quite close to our constituencies, at Porthmadoc, and there have been some near misses elsewhere. There was a 6 per cent. reduction in the number of incidents of signals being passed at danger in 2003–04, but there were 378, which is quite a large number.

Without being alarmist, we firmly believe that as there will no longer be a separate body to consider this issue—the Health and Safety Commission, whose responsibilities are to be absorbed into those of the Office of Rail Regulation—the public would be reassured if the Bill took account of that change by reorganising the railways to strengthen safety provision. We would also like the ORR, when it reports annually, to have criteria on which to judge relative safety in the relevant year, in the context of performance targets and the like.

A later amendment, amendment No. 35, deals with safety, but we think that the extension of the ORR's responsibilities to rail safety should be in the Bill.

The Minister is deep in conversation. I do not want to embarrass him, but I should like him to respond.

I shall be brief, because I want us to cover as much ground as possible today.

In the light of what we have just heard, I think it worth pointing out that rail travel in the UK is still one of the safest forms of travel. However, Conservative Members have some sympathy with new clause 12. Its aims are laudable. I have reservations about the potentially heavy-handed nature of these provisions, but if it is a question of balancing improved safety scrutiny against the imposition of a heavy-handed framework, we would all say that safety must come first. I hope that the Minister will be able to reassure the House that the new clause is not needed.

As Mr. Llwyd said, new clause 12 seeks to impose on the Office of Rail Regulation a statutory duty to publish an annual safety report. The ORR would be required to include in the report information on passenger and non-passenger injuries and fatalities, and conclusions as to their causes; recommendations resulting from consideration of these incidents; and findings and recommendations arising from reviews of safety at level crossings. The statutory duty would also require that reviews of safety at level crossings be conducted annually.

I agree with Mr. Knight—the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy seemed to make the same point—that accidents of one sort or another are always likely to occur on our rail system. Mercifully, grave incidents are few and far between, and rail remains overwhelmingly one of the safest forms of transport. We will all agree that when accidents do occur and difficulties arise, the actions of our emergency services and all subsequent inquiries and reports are expedited, in so far as they can be, in an extremely professional and committed fashion.

The right hon. Member for East Yorkshire has anticipated me, in that I shall ask the House to resist the new clause, which is not necessary, as I hope to show. The Health and Safety Executive is currently responsible for publishing an annual report on the safety record of the railways—a function that is set out in the memorandum of understanding drawn up by the Secretary of State for Transport and the Health and Safety Commission. That MOU details the respective working arrangements and responsibilities in respect of railway safety, including the functions to be performed by the HSE. There is no statutory requirement in the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 for the HSE to publish an annual report on railway safety. Such reports give details of incidents involving passengers and non-passengers, as well as those involving level crossings, and they are publicly available, free of charge, on the HSE's website. The HSE considers safety recommendations separately, in the context of inquiries and investigations commissioned for specific incidents.

In transferring safety functions from the HSE to the ORR, we will seek to ensure that all such functions continue to be carried out in the same manner. Although there was no statutory requirement on the HSE to publish a safety report, the ORR should do so and we anticipate that it will. Indeed, we expect a similar reporting function to be set out in an MOU, to be drawn up by the Secretary of State and the ORR. The drawing up of an MOU with the ORR will form part of the transition arrangements.

The Rail Safety and Standards Board is also required to publish an annual safety report. Furthermore, the rail accident investigation branch will have a duty to produce a report on all accidents and incidents that are the subject of an investigation. The intention is that the regulations providing for these duties will come into force later this year. We need to consider how best to fit these publications together, with a view to providing the public with information in the most effective way. Although I cannot say at this stage exactly how that will be done, I can assure the House that the information currently available to the public will continue to be available. In that context, I suggest that the new clause is unnecessary.

The present health and safety regime on the railways will continue following the transfer to ORR, as will the publication requirements placed on the RSSB. In addition, when the RAIB comes fully into existence, information about its activities will remain in the public domain. Therefore, the proposals in the new clause are already covered by the Bill, and I ask the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy to withdraw the new clause.

I thank the Minister of State for that detailed explanation. Although I continue to believe that these matters should be included in the Bill and that responsibility for safety should reside with the ORR, it is possible that this is a debate for another place.

I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.

Motion and clause, by leave, withdrawn.