Household Safety (Carbon Monoxide Detectors) Bill

Tim Loughton Excerpts

Friday 12th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bingham]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. When I was scoping out the Bill, I looked at how far I could go with it, but I did not want to impose too much regulation. I spoke earlier about the great outdoors. As those who know the area will confirm, High Peak is a fabulous area. I have visited caravan sites and seen people with caravans, motor homes and so on, and on a summer’s evening, overlooking the beautiful scenery, what does everybody do? They have a barbecue. On a summer’s evening in Glossop, looking across to Shirebrook, one will see almost a haze from the barbecue fumes. At home, no one brings their barbecue inside after they have had it, but there have been examples where people have been camping and brought the barbecue in to warm the tent. It strikes me as a strange thing to do, but it has had tragic results.

The same has happened with motor homes and caravans. There are awnings that clip on the outside and people pull a barbecue underneath. I cannot stress enough: you cannot taste, smell or see carbon monoxide, but it might be enveloping you. I have friends who noticed they were beginning to feel a bit drowsy, but they thought nothing of it. A chap came along to look at the flue and chimney and said, “Have you been feeling tired recently or suffering from headaches?” They said, “Funnily enough, we have. We just thought we’d been working a bit harder.” He said, “No, you haven’t. There’s a crack in your chimney, and the carbon monoxide has been seeping into the house.” As I said, it might be someone else’s house, and it could be seeping through an adjoining wall.

I do not want to scaremonger and send the world and his wife down to B&Q to buy carbon monoxide alarms, although I am sure that Mr B and Mr Q would be delighted at such an outcome.

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

Other stores are available.

[Andrew Bingham]

Yes, they are available at other stores.

This is a problem. Carbon monoxide cannot be seen. My hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Heather Wheeler) mentioned people on holiday. On holiday, we all tend to be a bit more relaxed about things. I remember a campaign last summer to make people aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning when they are camping and caravanning. We could look at putting these detectors in motor homes and making them compulsory in all houses. I was slightly concerned about the burden of regulation. My feeling was that, having received representations for other areas to be included, if we could get this Bill into Committee— unlikely now, I admit—we could look at possible amendments at that stage. Given the hour of the day, however, it is—