§ Baroness Howells of St Davidsasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made on grant aid to encourage the safe operation of fishing vessels. [HL4548]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Hayman)The Government wish to see the fishing industry develop a positive safety culture. Former schemes providing grants simply for equipment have not been successful in cutting accident rates. One of the keys to improving safety is good training and that will be our priority. We therefore propose to make up to £0.5 million available in each of the next three financial years to deliver safety training for fishermen in England. These payments, to be funded through the EU structural fund for fisheries, will cover the fees to enable courses to be offered to fishermen without charge.
We are in discussion with the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Fisheries Departments of the developed administrations to develop a suitable new package of training measures. 163WA These will include courses to update safety awareness among fishermen hitherto exempt from the requirement for safety training; to provide training in accident prevention and risk assessment; and safety training for newcomers to the industry. We will consult the fishing industry on our proposals.
We also intend that grant aid should be available through FIFG to support the trialling of innovative and experimental equipment to improve vessel safety.