Day 057 - 29 Nov 94 - Page 47
1 directly myself. The UK statistics do exist and are
2 coming. They do not exist in the United States except in
3 some form on a state to state basis. This means that there
4 is no central record kept at Oak Brook which further means
5 that if the information were to be available to your
6 Lordship in any comprehensible form, it would perforce be
7 in the form of a summary which might take some considerable
8 time to put together. I have probably got that wrong
9 too -- yes, and I add to that, in the United States records
10 are kept for Social Security reasons only. What
11 implication that has, I really do not know. The only basis
12 on which they are kept in the United States is that they
13 show what people might qualify for Social Security by
14 reason of an industrial accident.
15
16 What they do not, of course, tell you is overall what the
17 position is in relation to in-store accidents in the United
18 States in the way that they do in this country. In other
19 words, they are not a McDonald's record kept for the
20 purpose of the better running of its business, or in
21 consequence of any government legislation. So, how far
22 those statistics, American ones, would actually help your
23 Lordship, I do not know.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us take it step by step. The UK
26 statistics are going to be disclosed?
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: They are, yes.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not doubting for a moment
31 Mrs. Brinley-Codd's efficiency or her ability to summarise
32 accurately what she has heard, but is it possible to get
33 from -- I am not ordering you to do that; it is just a way
34 of approaching it so we can see whether they would help or
35 not -- a letter from someone in one of the states which
36 might be taken as a typical example, just setting out what
37 the nature of such statistics as there is, in other words,
38 what they record and for what purpose?
39
40 MR. RAMPTON: Mrs. Brinley-Codd has already asked them to send
41 us an account of what they have and what they can do with
42 it. If it is not comprehensible, then we will ask for
43 something like what your Lordship has suggested and see
44 what happens.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If I might suggest, I think that whoever is
47 going to write the letter should be told it is a letter
48 which will be disclosed in open court, so that people can
49 actually look at what its contents are and to spell out in
50 as simple English or American as is possible just what the
51 statistics would reveal, then we can consider that again.
52
53 MR. RAMPTON: Very well, we will do that.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is what I suggest you do for the time
56 being.
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that is what we will do.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: Just on that subject, our understanding is the
