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Dept of the Environment Transport and the Regions

Answer

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many people he estimates died over the past three years as a result of gas explosions; and how many of such deaths would have been prevented had excess flow valves been fitted to dwellings. [141362] Mr. Meacher: Following are the figures for fatalities resulting from gas-related explosions/fires reported to the Health and Safety Executive under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 for the three years up to 31 March 2000: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Number 1997-98 8 1998-99 11 1999-2000 {1}9 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Provisional Further analysis of the causation of the incidents would be required before it could be determined precisely how many of these deaths would have been prevented had excess flow valves been fitted. In the judgment of the Health and Safety Executive the majority of the incidents, including those arising from gas escapes from mains and user error in failing to light an appliance after turning it on, would not have been prevented by the presence of an excess flow valve. However, the Executive will consider further the safety case for the use of such devices in the context of developing the safety-related research strategy proposed in the Health and Safety Commission's recently published Gas Safety Review report.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

359 c285-7W;359 c283-5W; 141362

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Death Fires Natural gas Safety measures Explosions

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk