Speeches

Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been (a) killed and (b) injured working in ports in each of the last five years.

Justin Tomlinson

Table 1 attached contains data on the number of people who have been reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) as (a) killed and (b) injured working in the ports and docks industry in each of the last five years. Please note the caveats included within the table.

The main Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes used to define the ports and docks industry fall under the general category for the transport industry, of which there are many sub-categories. Considerable overlap exists between codes relating to transport, and codes relating to warehousing and cargo handling, as many organisations are involved in both types of work but can only be attributed to one SIC code. Therefore it is possible that other accidents relating to the ports and docks industry have been classified under different SIC codes; this should be taken into consideration when interpreting the data. A comprehensive text search of all RIDDOR notifications for reference to incidents occurring in ports or docks could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost, and moreover would not be statistically rigorous.