AN EAST Lancashire MP has urged ministers to take action to make farms safer, starting with banning teenagers too young to drive from handling tractors on agricultural land.

Gordon Prentice is alarmed that seven people have died on farms in Lancashire in the last four years and that 43 under-16s nationwide have been killed in the last decade as a result of agricultural accidents.

Now he wants ministers to tighten up the rules, particularly the "astonishing" law that allows children as young as 13 to drive tractors on farms.

The Pendle Labour back bencher recently unearthed figures for deaths and injuries on farms.

It showed that since 1996/7 five farm workers and two members of the public had been killed on farms in Lancashire.

In the same period there had been 74 serious injuries.

But he was equally shocked to discover that 43 children -- aged 16 and under -- had died nationwide over the last 10 years as a result of accidents arising from agricultural work.

Mr Prentice said: "Farms can be incredibly hazardous places and constant vigilance is required. I want to see a new emphasis on safety.

"It is astonishing that children as young as 13 can legally drive tractors on a farm.

"The roll call of children's deaths is horrifying. It is time we did something about it.

"This is a really worrying issue.

"Tractors and the equipment attached to them can be far more dangerous that a motor car."

He is to take up the matter with ministers at the House of Commons.