Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a cross-government National Accident Prevention Strategy.

A national accident prevention strategy would encompass many other sources of accidents, e.g. road accidents, home accidents, and would focus on improving data on accidents from the NHS

Accident prevention is a priority and it is delivered by different departmental portfolios, of which the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is one. The current approach is effective at dealing with this diverse range, so it would be difficult to bring accident prevention under one umbrella of a national accident strategy.

The Government believes the regulatory model employed by HSE for regulating health and safety in the workplace can be used in the approach to regulating accident prevention. However, introducing a cross-government strategy would not be a matter solely for HSE or the Department for Work and Pensions.