Day 128 - 24 May 95 - Page 35


     
     1   MS. STEEL:   I do not know whether it appears somewhere in the
     2        documents or not.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do you know whether we have one?  What does
     5        it look like?
     6        A.  I have not seen one.  I really do not know if there is
     7        one in there, but I certainly have not seen one.
     8
     9   Q.   When did that come in, remind me again?
    10        A.  That came in in August 1993.
    11
    12   MS. STEEL:   Prior to that there was not any specific safety
    13        audit?
    14        A.  No, prior to that safety was audited as part of a
    15        personnel audit.  That had been in place for, well, as long
    16        as I can remember.
    17
    18   Q.   What does the personnel audit appear in?  Is that a
    19        separate document in itself?
    20        A.  Yes, it is.
    21
    22   Q.   Just entitled "personnel audit"?
    23        A.  Yes, I am not sure in what format it is in rolling
    24        grades, but it used to be personnel audit; part of that was
    25        health and safety.
    26
    27   Q.   You were talking about the Health and Safety Executive
    28        report yesterday and you started to say:  "This report was
    29        prepared for a specific reason, which was after Thomas" and
    30        then you were interrupted.  I do not think that you ever
    31        finished what you were going to say.
    32        A.  I was talking then about the graphs that we looked at
    33        this morning, the ones on accidents.
    34
    35   Q.   The accident statistics ones?
    36        A.  Yes, and that report was prepared after Thomas Perkins'
    37        accident.
    38
    39   Q.   He being a child, as opposed to an employee?
    40        A.  A customer, yes.
    41
    42   Q.   Was that after the family had taken action?
    43        A.  No, that was straight after the accident.
    44
    45   Q.   Why did you feel it was particularly important to start
    46        preparing a report after that?
    47        A.  It was not a case of starting to prepare, senior
    48        management wanted an update on where we were.
    49
    50   Q.   But it took the serious accident involving Thomas Perkins 
    51        for senior management to actually ask for this report? 
    52        A.  Well, they asked for that particular report for that 
    53        specific reason, but prior to that, accident statistics and
    54        updates had been included in the health and safety steering
    55        group minutes which went to senior management.
    56
    57   Q.   How long had they been compiled?
    58        A.  Well, since the original Task Force was set up in the
    59        late 80s, there have always been minutes taken from the
    60        meeting.

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