§ Mr. Cyril Smithasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will take steps to ensure that all divers operating in the North Sea have received adequate national certificates of competence.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI am advised by the Manpower Services Commission that legislative responsibility for the competence of divers in the North Sea is divided between the Departments of Energy and trade, which have jurisdiction over diving operations from offshore installations and ships respectively and which employ a common diving inspectorate, and the Health and Safety Executive which has responsibility for diving operations covered by the Factories Act 1961 as far as these extend to the limit of territorial waters. Two types of diving are involved in operations in the North Sea—i.e., air diving, that is diving down to depths of 50 metres using compressed air; and deep diving, i.e., below 50 metres using mixed gas breathing mixture. A large amount of the work involves deep diving below 50 metres.
The Training Services Agency introduced on 26th August 1975 a national system of certification for trainee divers. Under this scheme the TSA will approve and monitor courses at diving centres that undertake to provide training to national standards and will issue certificates to trainees who satisfactorily complete such courses. The national system of certification encompasses both basic air diving courses based on the recently published TSA Standard for Basic air diving and underwater working and also mixed gas diving courses to be provided next year at the Underwater Training Centre, Fort William, which will be based on a new training standard for mixed gas diving being prepared by TSA in conjunction with the UTC.
The national standard for basic air diving and underwater working is directed towards improving the quality of work of new entrants to commerical diving, hence reducing the risk of diving accidents which can be attributed to inadequate training, and it is hoped that the training standard will gain wide acceptance in the diving industry.
In existing legislation there is a requirement for competence of divers but there 658W is no legal requirement for training. Rationalisation of existing and proposed regulations on diving safety is at present being considered by an interdepartmental working group of officials chaired by the Health and Safety Executive. The aim is to produce if practicable a single common set of regulations covering all diving work or alternatively to harmonise standards contained in individual sets of regulations. The working group is considering, inter alia, whether any changes are required in the existing legal requirements for competence and whether a specific requirement for training should be introduced.