§ Lord Randall of St. Budeauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
What estimate they have made of the cost of confirming the location and identity of the trawler "Gaul".
§ Baroness Hayman:The costs of confirming the location and identity of the trawler were met by the television companies involved and Her Majesty's Government has no knowledge of the costs that were incurred.
§ Lord Randall of St. Budeauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
When the Government of the day first became aware of the estimated position of the trawler "Gaul".
§ Baroness HaymanIn 1974 a Royal Navy Report to the then Department of Trade, which was then responsible for marine safety, stated that three separate unidentifiable echoes had been recorded in the general area of the "Gaul's" disappearance.
The then Department of Trade considered a number of proposals for searching for the wreck. Proposals from the Royal Navy and commercial sources were discussed, but were not pursued as it was decided then that the considerable resource implications of each proposal could not be justified.
Departmental records show that the lack of a positively identified search area was an important factor in these decisions. It is important to consider that mid–1970s technology was less able than the technology available today to make positive identifications of underwater objects from the surface.