Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-10-Speech-1-161"
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"en.20071210.20.1-161"2
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"Mr President, first of all I would like to thank my colleague Mr Ford for taking the initiative to table this question, and I am speaking tonight on behalf of all my Conservative colleagues who have jointly signed this, in particular Giles Chichester, the newly elected leader of the Conservative Group, in whose constituency the dreadful fire in August, to which Mr Ford referred, happened. He wants me to associate him very much with the thrust of the question that Mr Ford has tabled.
From my own side it is rather poignant also, because the issues about fires are, of course, not just confined to hotels. A few weeks ago, in the heart of my own constituency in Warwickshire, there was a truly dreadful fire in an industrial building, in which four volunteer firemen tragically lost their lives. We have not had the full results of the inquiry on that tragic incident yet, but it is clear that the building was supposed to have a sprinkler system but apparently did not have one fitted. So I want to draw attention of colleagues to that tonight, in perhaps just thinking about some of the broader issues that the Commissioner has raised.
The Commissioner quite rightly pointed to the fact that in the Construction Products Directive, which will be coming to our committee early next year, issues about building flammability and construction materials are dealt with and I think will be looked at again. And, of course, the whole issue of building standards and the potential for fire prevention devices like sprinklers is opened up by Mr Ford’s question.
I am perhaps more sympathetic to the Commissioner’s position, as I think one has to be careful about trying to impose a very expensive single solution, particularly in the hotel sector, where we have such an enormous range of facilities in size and scale on offer.
But it does seem to me that something needs to move forward on this and I am delighted to hear that the Commissioner, with her characteristic initiative that we have just heard in the previous debate, is already moving on this and inviting some of the major hotel chains to meet her. But it seems to me that one of the ways in which we can move this forward very quickly is by giving consumers more information in a consistently presented way and heightening their awareness of it. So when they make bookings for hotels, they may look on the internet – and hotels now increasingly do provide fire-protection information, but I think that varies considerably from country to country. So, maybe, having some sort of rating system for hotels, based on their inspections and equipment – a star rating system if you like, which is applied consistently – is something that would be worthwhile raising and considering with the hotel proprietors.
It operates in a number of other areas: for example, in motor vehicles, where the Commission has successfully promoted an initiative to have a star rating for cars. Perhaps we could consider something to move quickly on this, to deal with the problem that Mr Ford has raised and which this motion places before the House."@en1
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