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Carbon Monoxide Detectors

I begin by commending my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt) for securing this important debate. It has given the House an opportunity to revisit the issue of gas safety in the home, to which the Government attach considerable importance. I also acknowledge the attendance of colleagues from all parties across the House—the hon. Members for Colchester (Bob Russell), for Castle Point (Bob Spink), and for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) and my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Washington, East (Mr. Kemp). It is unusual to see so many colleagues at an Adjournment debate at the end of business. The policy lead for this subject falls to my noble friend Lord McKenzie of Luton. He has taken a close personal interest in gas safety and is working closely with the Health and Safety Executive towards improvements for gas consumers. Like other hon. Members, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to my honourable Friend's constituents at High Peak, David and Mary Jane Worswick, who tragically lost their teenager daughter, Mary Ann Bailey together with her friend, Martin Taylor, to carbon monoxide poisoning almost four years ago, and to the other families sadly affected, to whom my hon. Friend referred. I am all too aware of the problem that can arise from defective gas appliances. As my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Washington, East highlighted, many of us have had experience of CO poisoning incidents. Some six years ago, two of my constituents—two young students—living in rented accommodation died from CO fumes from a portable room heater. Indeed, when my daughter was sharing a flat as a student she was fortunately able to recognise the early symptoms of CO poisoning. It is something that touches us all. Let me assure the House that the Government are committed to playing their part in improving gas safety. For more than 20 years, domestic gas safety has been controlled within the framework of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974. In that period, the resulting regime has undergone many reforms aimed at tightening gas safety standards for domestic consumers. As my hon. Friend has readily acknowledged, this legal framework has set the scene for a significant downward trend in the number of deaths due to CO poisoning from gas installations over the years. The most recent HSE figures provisionally show that there were eight deaths from CO poisoning related to gas installations during 2006-07—the lowest figure on record. This compares with 16 for the previous year, and, as my hon. Friend highlighted, 10 years ago, the figure was more than three times that number.