HC Deb 26 May 1954 vol 528 cc394-5
20. Mr. George Craddock

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what machinery is envisaged for enforcing the recent international agreement concluded in London on the pollution of sea water.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

Responsibility for enforcement in relation to a ship will rest, under the Convention, upon the Government of the country in which the ship is registered. If any contracting State provides sufficient evidence of a breach of the Convention by a ship of another contracting country, the latter country is obliged to take proceedings against the ship. Ships will be required under the Convention to maintain an oil record book, with details of the discharge and disposal of oil residues and oily water, and this may be inspected by the appropriate authorities in the ports of countries which are parties to the Convention. The provisions of the Convention do not affect a Government's powers within its own territorial waters.

26. Mr. Stokes

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether, in view of the unsatisfactory conclusions of the recent international conference on oil pollution of the sea, he will now fix a date by which all tankers and all ships burning oil must be equipped with oil separators and sludge tanks as a condition precedent to entering any port in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

No, Sir. The right hon. Member should not assume that the results of the International Conference on Oil Pollution of the sea were unsatisfactory. I believe that the countries represented will carry out the Resolutions and the Convention signed at the conference, which would be very much more effective than unilateral action of the kind suggested.

Mr. Stokes

Yes, but is not the Minister aware that all this conference has done is to put off the evil day when the oil will arrive on our shores? Is he aware that what he said in answer to a previous Question does not convey any practical steps to stop its inevitable arrival? What does he mean to do about it? The current comes our way, and so will the oil unless he does something like this.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I think that the right hon. Gentleman knows that 11; countries have signed the Convention subject to acceptance by their Governments, and the concessions provided for in the Convention, though not as valuable as total prohibition, are a large step forward on the road to sanity in this matter.

Mr. Stokes

The Minister is not answering my point. Does he really consider that any findings of the conference will prevent the oil arriving on these shores? Any practical man knows that it will not and that the only way to do it is as envisaged in the context of my Question.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the Convention covers a number of fields and, in the absence of total prohibition, there are other ways in which we can help in this matter, for example, by the provision of reception facilities in our ports, and we propose to push on with that and other requirements.

Mr. Stokes

May I ask the Minister whether he is entirely satisfied that it is not mainly due to the selfishness of shipping interests that adequate equipment has not been supplied? That was my impression when I heard the debate.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

If the right hon. Gentleman has in mind British shipping, that would be singularly unjust. They have taken a lead in the matter, for which I think the civilised world owes them a debt of gratitude.

Mr. Stokes

Nothing has been done about the matter at all.