Railways: Accidents

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many (a) drivers, (b) conductors or other train staff and (c) passengers have been (i) killed and (ii) injured in railway accidents that did not occur within railway stations in each of the last 10 years; and what cause was attributed to each incident. (323727)

Accidents and incidents on the railways are reported to the independent Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR 95). Under these regulations, the geographical location of the accident/ incident is recorded. There is no further breakdown of location into a sub-category, e.g. station, signal box, on the line. Therefore, the breakdown of the data for accidents that have not occurred at stations and the cause of each accident could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

However, the number of fatal injuries and non fatal injuries for the period 1999 to 2008 for all railway employees, including contractors, and passengers that have occurred on railway infrastructure can be provided and is shown in Tables 1 and 2. The data for railway employees have been broken down into train drivers, conductors and other train crew and other railway employees.

*Table 1: Fatal injuries, passengers and railway employees 1999 to 2008, all railways*
	Passengers	Train drivers	Conductors and other train crew	Other railway employees	Total
1999	54	2	0	3	59
2000	15	0	0	4	19
2001	17	2	2	5	26
2002	23	0	0	4	27
2003	13	1	0	4	18
2004	13	1	0	9	23
2005	10	2	0	2	16
2006	8	2	1	1	12
2007	6	0	0	2	8
2008	5	0	0	4	9

*Table 2: Non-fatal injuries, passengers and railway employees 1999 to 2008, all railways*
	Passengers	Train drivers	Conductors and other train crew	Other railway employees	Total
1999	2,737	426	182	1,875	5,220
2000	2,697	401	164	1,958	5,220
2001	2,564	409	141	1,884	4,998
2002	2,485	380	151	1,953	4,969
2003	2,550	372	167	1,809	4,898
2004	2,627	327	280	1,693	4,927
2005	2,800	326	258	1,695	5,079
2006	2,539	291	241	1,215	4,286
2007	2,801	209	263	959	4,232
2008	2,489	247	225	836	3,797

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many (a) fatalities, (b) injuries and (c) incidents of damage to property on the railways have been recorded in each of the last five years; and what cause was attributed to each incident. (323729)

The number of fatalities and injuries on the railways for the period 2004-08 is shown in Tables 1 and 2. The information is based on accidents notified to the independent Office of Rail Regulation under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR 95).

*Table 1: Fatal injuries, 2004-08*
Number
Category	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Passengers	13	10	8	6	5
Railway employees¹	10	6	4	2	4
Other members of the public	12	17	11	14	19
Trespassers and suicides	253	281	320	287	291
Total	288	314	343	309	319
¹ Includes contractors.

*Table 2: Non-fatal injuries, 2004-08*
Number
Category	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Passengers	2,627	2,800	2,539	2,801	2,489
Railway employees¹	2,300	2,279	1,747	1,431	1,308
Other members of the public	69	60	73	51	58
Trespassers and suicides	132	127	140	122	156
Total	5,128	5,266	4,499	4,405	4,011
¹ Includes contractors.

The number of incidents of damage to property is neither reported or held by the independent Office of Rail Regulation.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what the last 100 railway incidents reported to the Office of Rail Regulation, Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate and the Health and Safety Executive were in each constituent part of the UK. (323733)

In line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, the independent Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is unable to provide information on the last 100 incidents reported to them.

Statements of how ORR is following the code can be found on its website at:

http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1862

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many (a) individuals, (b) firms, (c) companies and (d) other organisations have been prosecuted for breaches of (i) health and safety and (ii) other legislation in respect of railway incidents in each year since its inception. (323734)

Since its inception as the independent safety and economic regulator for Britain’s railways on 1 April 2006, the independent Office of Rail Regulation has brought 20 successful prosecutions for breaches of health and safety legislation in respect of railway incidents. Details of these prosecutions can be found on the independent Office of Rail Regulation’s website at:

http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk

The independent Office of Rail Regulation has not brought any prosecutions for breaches of other legislation.

Details of prosecutions taken by the Health and Safety Executive prior to 2006 can be found in the Health and Safety Executive annual reports on railway safety, copies of which are available from the Libraries of the House.

Volume 508: debated on Wednesday 24 March 2010