Safety At Sea

HC Deb 04 April 2000 vol 347 cc800-1

8. Mr. Colin Breed (South-East Cornwall)

What plans he has to improve safety at sea. [116149]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions(Mr. Keith Hill)

With regard to international shipping, the Government continue to play a leading role in efforts to enhance maritime safety through their active involvement in and support of safety initiatives that are being taken forward by the International Maritime Organisation and in the European Union. With regard to the United Kingdom fishing industry, the Government are determined to improve poor safety standards through a mixture of regulation and education to foster a culture in which safe practice, such as wearing automatic lifejackets while working on deck, is taken for granted.

Mr. Breed

I am sure that the Minister would wish to offer his condolences to the family and friends of Daniel Kebble, a young fisherman from Polperro in my constituency, who lost his life fishing earlier this year. Does the Minister accept that safety equipment such as lifejackets that are available to fishermen are either user friendly but do not fulfil the necessary buoyancy standards, or have the buoyancy but are bulky and not easy to use? Will he consider funding the relatively modest amount of research and development to marry the necessary qualities so that fishermen can obtain lifejackets that are user friendly and fulfil adequate safety standards?

Mr. Hill

I join the hon. Gentleman in extending condolences to the family of the young man in question. I agree with his wider point: immersion suits are designed for use in abandon-ship circumstances, not for continuous wear. Under an EU directive on a harmonised safety regime for fishing vessels, all new vessels of 24 m and over must carry lifejackets. However, we are not persuaded that the United Kingdom should go further and require immersion suits to be carried on all vessels, regardless of size. There are anxieties in the industry about their practicality. However, the Government strongly recommend that fishermen should wear an automatic single-chamber inflatable lifejacket while working on deck and we have published standards for such garments.

Dr. Norman A. Godman (Greenock and Inverclyde)

I offer my condolences to the family of the young man lost from the constituency of the hon. Member for South-East Cornwall (Mr. Breed), and also to the families of the two Lewis fishermen who were lost at sea at the weekend.

We need an early debate on safety at sea because not enough is being done. No fishing vessel should be allowed to leave port without survival suits on board for all members of the crew. It is not always possible for those lads to put them on when a vessel is foundering, but when they have time to put on a survival suit, they increase their chances of survival dramatically. The Government must act through regulation.

Mr. Hill

I join my hon. Friend in offering condolences to the Lewis fishermen who were lost at sea at the weekend. My hon. Friend has conducted a long campaign about the availability of immersion suits. I reiterate that the Government are not persuaded that they are appropriate in all circumstances. However, my hon. Friend is right to emphasise the need for enhanced safety measures at sea. We believe that much can be done to improve the appalling safety record of the fishing industry, which is 10 times more dangerous than the next most dangerous industry, which is agriculture. Improvements can be achieved partly through equipment and partly through safety training.

We believe that the time has come to subject the 80 per cent. of the industry that operates in vessels under 12 m in length to a statutory safety code. As my hon. Friend knows, that has been under discussion with the industry for many years. We now propose to implement a mandatory safety code for under-12 m vessels by the end of April 2001.

Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)

In the fishing industry, three vessels are lost and 11 sailors are killed a month. Both sides of the House will welcome what the Minister said about maximising safety standards. We would have welcomed what the Deputy Prime Minister said about safety grants last week, or last month—or last year rather. He said: speaking for the Government as a whole, I have made clear that the fishing vessel safety equipment grants would continue. In that case, why have the Government cancelled them?

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions(Mr. John Prescott)

It was to the end of that year.

Mr. Hill

As my right hon. Friend has accurately stated from a sedentary position, he was referring to the end of that particular year. My right hon. Friend obviously has a clearer sense of time than does the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray), who did not seem to know what time of the year my right hon. Friend had spoken.

I shall make the Government's position entirely clear. Grants to the fishing industry should not be used for the purchase of mandatory safety equipment. We believe that if further funds are to be made available to the industry, they should be used to enhance that essential safety culture by improved safety training techniques.