HC Deb 24 January 1983 vol 35 cc350-1W
Mr. Dalyell

asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report the text of his reply to the letter of the general secretary of the National Union of Seamen on his refusal to pay allowances, given to other merchant seamen within 100 miles of the Falklands, to Royal Fleet Auxiliary employees.

Mr. Blaker

Yes. The text is as followsThank you for your letter to John Non of 18 November 1982 concerning payments to personnel employed in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service. In a recent Answer to a Parliamentary Question from Dr. David Owen (11 November 1982, Hansard c. 205) I referred to the fact that only Masters and crews of ships chartered or requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence came within the scope of the National Maritime Board agreement on the payment of £6 per day because their role had been so radically changed. I made it quite clear that since RFA vessels had not been subject to the same radical changes in task and operating patterns I could see no justification for seeking a similar bonus payment for them. On the subject of the earlier war risk bonus payable during the Falkland campaign itself, I must remind you that the very purpose for which the RFA Service is maintained is to provide worldwide close logistic support for the Armed Services, in peace and in war. Merchant Navy ratings who join the RFA do so of their own free will knowing the role it performs and its pattern of operations. I draw no distinction here between 'pool' and contract men. This is again in direct contrast to Merchant Navy personnel serving in those commercial ships taken up by the Ministry of Defence as an emergency measure. It was therefore the National Maritime Board's judgment, which I fully share, that the payment for the substantially larger sea zone was appropriate only in the case of ships taken from the trade. Whilst your Union did not wholeheartedly support the NMB agreement first reached on 6 April 1982, neither did it reject it at that time. During the Falklands conflict, approximately 2,000 men of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service were paid substantial war bonuses. On a per capita basis I understand that these differed little from the average payments to other merchant seamen because of the longer periods spent by the RFA in close proximity to the Falklands and South Georgia. I do not believe these payments could be regarded as ungenerous. Her Majesty's Government has paid in full its obligations under national Maritime Board agreements including the reimbursement of expenditure incurred by all the private shipping companies involved. Since you were a consenting party to those agreements, I fail to see the strength of your claim to be in dispute with the Ministry of Defence. It is the present policy of the Ministry of Defence to maintain the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service as a civilian-manned—but quite distinct—fleet providing front line logistics support at all times, primarily for the Royal Navy. In his way their special expertise, particularly in replenishment at sea operations, is developed and maintained. This role was never more dramatically, nor more courageously, demonstrated than in the operations earlier this year. I am sending a copy of this letter to John Prescott MP.