(Garston and Halewood)
(Lab)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to increase the minimum
required height of guarding in multi-storey car parks; to make
provision about increasing the height of guarding in existing
multi-storey car parks; to require 24 hour staffing of
multi-storey car parks; and for connected purposes.
Unfortunately, I never met my constituent Gabriel Jack Santer,
known as Gabe. He died, aged just 15, on 3 October 2020 when he
fell from the top of an open-roofed multi-storey car park. It was
a Q-Park on the corner of Hanover Street and Gradwell Street in
Liverpool city centre on a bleak, wet and windy Saturday night.
The inquest at the end of January 2021 recorded an open
verdict.
Gabriel was, by all accounts, a lovely, popular, friendly and
lively boy. His teachers thought him destined for stage or
screen, because he was a natural entertainer with a fine sense of
humour. He was kind, never cruel; he was a sensitive young man,
who was solicitous and caring. He was friends with many and
scorned by none of his peers at school or from skateboarding. Now
he is gone and very much missed by his family and friends.
Agonisingly, Gabe’s family will never know what was in his mind
around the time of his fall from that place, but they know one
thing for sure—his death was as preventable as it was senseless.
Had the barriers atop the car park been higher or designed to
prevent people falling or climbing over them, Gabe could not have
fallen as he did on that night. Had there been staff on site to
watch what was going on and to check on safety, he would not have
fallen.
As it happens, the barriers in the place from which Gabe fell
were a few inches below the legal minimum. Even so, almost two
and a half years later, there is no indication that Q-Park is to
be pursued by any enforcement authority for that failure to
adhere to the guidance in approved document K of the building
regulations, even though it led to the death of a 15-year-old
boy.
Gabe’s father, my constituent Johnny Santer, is determined to
ensure that Gabe’s death will not be in vain. He wants to make
sure that no other person finds it so shockingly easily possible
to fall or jump from an open-roofed multi-storey car park, and I
want to help him achieve that aim. That is why I seek the leave
of the House to bring in a Bill, the Multi-Storey Car Parks
(Safety) Bill, to ensure that the minimum height of barriers is
increased substantially; that existing car parks have to be
retrofitted with safer barriers adhering to new, higher
standards; and that provision is made for the staffing of such
sites to ensure that people do not fall.
After Gabriel’s father came to see me following Gabriel’s
inquest, I was shocked to discover that the building regulations’
requirements for the height of barriers set a minimum height for
guarding the rooftop of only 1.1 metres, or just around 3 feet.
That is too low to stop anyone from accidentally falling, and it
is certainly too low to stop anyone who is determined to jump.
Multi-storey car parks must be attractive to those seeking to
take their own life. They are easily accessible; one can reach
the top floor easily, without needing to explain one’s presence;
they are generally unstaffed, so there is unlikely to be anybody
asking, “What’s going on?”; and the barriers only have to be 3
feet high to meet the requirements set out in the building
regulations. In addition, such low barriers make it easy to fall
accidentally in certain circumstances.
So how much of a problem is there—how general is it? The answer
is not entirely clear. I tabled a written question, and was told
that the Government do not collect figures to indicate how many
people die each year in the way that Gabriel did. In a written
answer on 5 September 2022, the Government confirmed that they
are
“aware of some fatalities”,
but did not state how many or give me a number. However, it seems
to be a more frequent occurrence than one might hope or expect. A
simple search of newspaper reports, while hardly comprehensive,
none the less indicates that there is a real problem. It shows
that there were at least 17 deaths by falling from multi-storey
car parks in England over a 12-month period—in 2022. There may
well be more deaths that have gone unreported in the media, and
there are also likely to be instances of very serious injury
caused by people falling or jumping from those easily accessible,
high and dangerous places.
If Mr Santer’s experience is anything to go by, owners and
operators of multi-storey car parks are not exactly open to the
idea of increasing safety measures above the minimum requirements
set out in approved document K. Gabriel fell from a Q-Park roof.
Q-Park is the third largest car park operator in Europe, with
over 3,500 car parks under its control, yet when Mr Santer asked
that company for all the information it held about his son by way
of a freedom of information request, he was told that such
requests need only be met in respect of “living persons”—what a
shockingly insensitive response in the circumstances. When my
office got involved, Mr Santer did receive some basic information
thereafter, but it did not take long for Q-Park and its
associated companies to shut up shop, demanding that Mr Santer
communicate with them only via their lawyers.
It has become clear that Q-Park is not willing to take any
voluntary steps to ensure that barriers are at a height that
would prevent falling and jumping from its roofs, nor does it
seem inclined to do anything much to improve safety unless it is
made to by a change in the law. Indeed, there was a death by
falling from the rooftop of a Q-Park in Sheffield in May 2012,
which resulted in a regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths
being sent by the Sheffield coroner to Q-Park Ltd and Sheffield
City Council’s planning department in May 2014. That report set
out concerns about the low height of the barriers and the ease of
using the crash barrier by the perimeter wall as a step up to the
top of the perimeter wall. Despite Sheffield City Council
offering to facilitate improvements, and nine years after that
prevention of future deaths report was sent by the Sheffield
coroner to the company, Q-Park is still refusing to make any of
the changes mentioned in that report when pressed by Mr Santer,
and that is not encouraging. Gabriel died six years after the
report was sent to Q-Park, which had done nothing to deal with
the issues it highlighted. That shows that Q-Park will only do
the absolute minimum to comply with guidance on safety.
It is therefore up to us in this place to require that
improvements be made to the safety of multi-storey car parks. It
seems clear that, if Q-Park is to take those safety concerns
seriously and finally increase the height of its barriers, the
legal minimum height must be increased, and a requirement to
retrofit existing car parks must be included in the law. In
addition, having car parks staffed can only increase safety
levels. If Mr Santer is to achieve his goal of ensuring that
Gabriel did not die in vain and that some good can come out of
this terrible tragedy, the law must be changed. It is for us to
do so.
In a written answer from June 2020, the Government confirmed that
they have no current plans to make any such changes. It is in
those circumstances that I seek leave to bring forward
legislation to increase the safety of guarding at multi-storey
car parks, as I have outlined. Should I receive permission to
introduce such a Bill, and should that Bill receive Royal Assent,
I think it would be appropriate to refer to it as Gabe’s law. He
was a fine young lad with so much promise, who died too soon and
so needlessly.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That , Dame , , , , , , , , , and present the Bill.
accordingly presented the
Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 17
March, and to be printed (Bill 256).
