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Carbon Monoxide Detectors

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, and I agree that it is a very welcome initiative. I have not heard of one on that scale before, and I hope that it is a precursor of things to come. Only one in five respondents to my questionnaire were tenants and most of them thought that their landlords had their central heating system serviced regularly, although I cannot be sure that the work is done to the legal standard. Every incident of CO poisoning that I have described could have been prevented by the use of electronic CO detectors with an audible alarm. For the record, they are much more reliable than the cheaper black spot detectors, which have no alarm. Because CO incidents can develop in minutes or hours, black spot detectors cannot be relied on to draw attention to danger when it arises. Before I complete my remarks, I wish to pay tribute to those who have assisted me in preparing for this debate. They include my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman) who, in his role as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on gas safety, organised the event last October, and my colleagues who have intervened so constructively tonight. I should also like to thank CORGI, British Gas, CO-Awareness and its president, Lynn Griffiths, as well as the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, the practice of Russell Jones and Walker, and the people of High Peak who responded to my survey. In particular, I want to pay tribute to the steadfast commitment to the cause shown by David and Mary Jane Worswick, my constituents from Glossop who lost their daughter to CO poisoning almost exactly four years ago. In summary, I ask my hon. Friend the Minister to take action on six fronts. First, I hope that she will act to ensure a greater awareness of CO issues among householders, landlords, tenants, housing authorities, tour operators, emergency services and doctors. Secondly, given that one person in seven moves house each year, I hope that she will act to ensure that having a working CO monitor is compulsory when every house is built. That requirement could be included in building regulations. In addition, I hope that she will ensure that CO monitors are made compulsory when every house is sold, a provision that could be included in home information packs. Will she also ensure that CO monitors are required when caravans and mobile homes are sold or advertised for rent, as proposed by the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink), and when tenancies are changed? The advice from British Gas to prospective tenants is that if a landlord cannot show them a current gas safety certificate, they should not move into his property. Thirdly, will she encourage the industry to phase out smoke alarms in favour of combined smoke and CO alarms for domestic use at an affordable price? Fourthly, will she redouble efforts to replace all open flue boilers with the more energy-efficient and less dangerous balanced flue variety, especially for vulnerable groups? Fifthly, can she reduce the level of illegal gas fitting by enabling a greater chance of securing meaningful convictions for those whose action or negligence contributes to CO poisoning? Finally, will she ensure that installers of oil and solid fuel boiler systems are brought under a mandatory system of registration comparable to that which applies to gas installers? If those measures had been taken, my constituents Mary Ann Bailey and John Froggatt would be with us today. Mr. Froggatt would have been looking forward to his 73rd birthday in 2008, Mary Ann to her 20th. In one respect, these two have been spared a lifetime of the sort of disability, brain damage or incapacity that others have suffered from this completely avoidable source of poisoning, but that is little consolation to their families. They want to hear that the Government have learned lessons from their misfortunes, and that steps will be taken to ensure that deaths and injuries from carbon monoxide poisoning continue to fall.