HC Deb 20 January 1997 vol 288 cc483-4W
Mr. Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what requests for assistance from ships containing refugees in the Mediterranean have been reported to his Department since December 1996. [11179]

Mr. Bowis

None.

Mr. Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance is given to United Kingdom-registered ships concerning the assistance to be offered to vessels or passengers in distress. [11182]

Mr. Bowis

The annual summary of admiralty notices to mariners and volume 5 of the admiralty list of radio signals, which are mandatory carriage on UK-registered ships, give explicit guidance to the masters of British ships. UK law provides that

the master or person in charge of a vessel shall, so far as he can do so without serious danger to his own vessel, her crew and passengers (if any), render assistance to every person, … who is found at sea in danger of being lost.

The master of a British ship, on receiving at sea a distress signal or information from any source that a vessel or aircraft is in distress, must proceed with all speed to the assistance of the persons in distress—informing them, if possible, that he is doing so—unless he is unable, or in the special circumstances of the case considers it unreasonable or unnecessary to do so, or unless he is released from this obligation under certain conditions.