§ 6. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he is yet in a position to state the outcome of the discussions initiated by him in the spring of 1957 for the purpose of making obligatory the carriage by all fishing and cargo vessels of inflatable life rafts; and if he will now make a comprehensive statement on the subject.
§ Mr. HayThe Merchant Shipping (Life-Saving Appliances) Rules, 1958, require the carriage of inflatable life rafts in all fishing vessels over 50 ft. in length and in all cargo ships on coasting and home trade voyages. The number and capacity vary with the size and class of ship.
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea requires lifeboats to be provided for all on board on each side of a cargo ship. The desirability of replacing a proportion of those boats by inflatable life rafts in cargo ships on long international voyages will be discussed at the Conference to be held in London in May, 1960, to revise that Convention. Meanwhile owners of such ships have been recommended to carry life rafts in addition to the boats, and a majority of them do so.
Inflatable life rafts were not considered suitable for carriage in tankers on long international voyages or in whale factory ships because of the risk of fire.
§ Mr. HughesWhile thanking the hon. Gentleman for that long and comprehensive reply, may I ask him whether he is in a position to say in how many 492 cases the recommendations he has mentioned have not been carried out and how many lives have been lost since I last put this Question to him as a result of these inflatable life rafts not being carried?
§ Mr. HayNo. With regard to the ships on long voyages, to which the second part of my Answer related, I am advised that some 75 per cent. of the ships involved do comply with our recommendations. Therefore, the answer to the first part of the hon. and learned Gentleman's supplementary question is 25 per cent. at the moment do not. I have no figures whatever of the losses of life, but the fact is that it is not a question of simply saying, "You must have inflatable life rafts to save life", because there are already lifeboats provided. What we want to see is some more flexible system, which we shall be going into at the conference next year.