Twenty million Britons have package holidays annually

The Independent's travel editor Simon Calder sought to provide some answers on BBC News 24.

Are tour operators doing enough?

The Federation of Tour Operators covers the vast majority of package holidays people take from Britain.

It has a set of guidelines - one of them says that anyone contracting accommodation needs to ensure that hotel companies will adhere to local and national building regulations and maintain proper standards of care.

But what also lies beyond that is the European package travel regulations.

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They make absolutely clear that the tour operator, in this case Thomas Cook, is responsible to ensure people have a safe holiday, which means that if we book a package holiday with a leading tour operator, we can expect that our accommodation will be safe.

This covers everything from the markings on the swimming pool to the height of the hotel balcony to the condition of the food in the all-inclusive buffet.

And in particular, because there were some tragic cases in the 1990s involving carbon monoxide poisoning, to make sure that we are not going to die in the accommodation from this terrible poison.

How does the FTO ensure its code of conduct is met?

All these companies conduct safety audits which are generally completed in the off-season.

In the spring probably, auditors from big tour operators will go round and talk to people in the hotels and make random inspections.

But it would be really quite difficult, expensive and implausible for a tour operator in the UK to do other than say to the hotel 'Look, we expect you to adhere to all these standards'.

Can travellers do anything themselves?

If any good is going to come out of this terrible tragedy it may well be that families decide to buy a carbon monoxide alarm which you can pick up for �20.

MP Nigel Griffiths set up CO gas safety campaign which carries out independent inspections of tourist properties. Why aren't tour operators doing this themselves?

It's a question of scale. There are 20 million people taking package holidays every year.

Tour operators would say are they really expected every week when a new family checks in to go and check every aspect of safety?

They would say that was unreasonable and that they take every possible care. Thomas Cook says it robustly adheres to safety standards and regrettably this seems to be a one in 100 million chance.

They all have big health and safety operations but are no more able to check the properties in the winter when they are empty.

But they [operators] are not going to go to the lengths that Nigel Griffiths, who is a great campaigner on this subject, is suggesting that they should be regularly monitored.