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Remaining Private Members' Bills
ENERGY EFFICIENCY BILL
Order read for resuming adjourned debate on Question [26 February], That the Bill be now read a Second time.
Debate to be resumed on Friday 12 March.
Order for Second Reading read.
Second Reading deferred till Friday 12 March.
Ordered,
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Hill.]
Mr. Robert Syms (Poole):
This is the second Adjournment debate that I have secured in this Parliament, and I am pleased that the Minister who responded to the first is here again today. However, given the wide range of subjects covered by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, it does not surprise me that that should be so.
I intend to touch on two aspects of the maritime rescue services--the Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. I must make it perfectly clear that they are two separate organisations, one of which is a governmental organisation and one of which is a private charity. However, they work closely together as key parts of the emergency services to save those in trouble at sea.
The Coastguard service was last debated on, I believe, 26 November 1997, after the Government had produced their five-year strategy for the service. That debate, which was introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Mr. Viggers), seems to have been quite stormy, particularly because many hon. Members hold their local coastguard stations very dear.
Fifteen months on, the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Select Committee has just produced a pretty critical report. Given that the Minister has not formally responded to the Select Committee's report and that we may have a debate on it in a few weeks' time, I shall understand if she is not able to respond to this debate in great detail. However, I make no apology for raising this matter today.
Poole is of course a great maritime port. It is the second largest port in the south-west of England, second to Avonmouth. It is the second largest natural harbour in the world, and it has great links with the sea. Therefore, issues of sea safety have a great resonance among my constituents.
The Coastguard service is important. Having read about it prior to this debate, I was surprised to learn that it has only approximately 430 regular members, and 3,100 auxiliaries. I should have thought that the service was far larger, bearing in mind that it has to discharge its duties over 10,000 miles of our coastline and 1.25 million square miles of sea and that it sometimes has to undertake operations 1,000 miles out into the north Atlantic.
I shall touch on particular aspects of the Select Committee's sixth report. The key point is that the Committee suggested that the Government ought to reverse their decision to merge the Maritime Safety Agency and the Coastguard. One or two people in my constituency have suggested that. I do not feel strongly about this but I am not sure whether the two really go together.
Another key point was the proposal to reduce the number of maritime rescue co-ordination centres from 2l, closing those at Oban, Pentland, Tyne Tees and Liverpool and merging those at Lee-on-the-Solent and Portland.
The Committee was keen that the Coastguard should keep local knowledge--a key factor in command and control. The Committee felt that the proposals to merge
Portland and Solent would not be welcomed, and asked for a reversal. My hon. Friend the Member for South Dorset (Mr. Bruce)--a remorseless exponent of his constituents' interests who has brought up the subject of the Portland base many times--was happy for me to raise the issue. His constituents are keen to retain the base, and would not wish it to close in 2002. The report criticised the consultation process, and the Committee stated that the savings from the review would be only £500,000--not much in terms of the local Coastguard scheme.
The management of the Poole harbour commissioners told me that if there were a Herald of Free Enterprise-type accident in Poole harbour--something nobody would wish to see--a knowledge of the harbour or coastline would be important. At the moment, an individual from Poole could go to the Portland control centre to give advice about the harbour. If the centre were moved 200 miles away, that would not be possible. Local knowledge is a fundamental tool of the Coastguard watch officers.
Interestingly, the Committee felt that a period of stability within the Coastguard would have been welcomed. Given that the work load of the Coastguard has increased substantially--there were 11,667 incidents in 1997, an increase of 110 per cent. on 10 years ago, and 16,884 people were assisted--there is good argument for that proposal.
I welcome the fact that the Coastguard is bringing in a new communications system--the integrated Coastguard communications system--but I caution against putting all one's eggs into technology. Experience and training are very important in this area. I served formerly on the Wessex regional health authority, which had a regional information computer system which did not work. The National Air Traffic Service at Swanwick is an example where the hope of managers to bring in technology for emergencies has not worked out. We need training, and we need to look realistically at what technology can do.
I am looking forward to Lord Donaldson's report on command and control, salvage and rescue. The report is with the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The Sea Empress and other recent disasters show that we need to look at the matter. I look forward to the report being published before the end of this month.
I have mentioned my concerns about the Coastguard, and I wish to move on to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Members who read the newspapers yesterday will be aware that the RNLI--based in Poole, in my constituency--is celebrating its 175th anniversary. The RNLI is well loved and does an excellent job for this country. It was founded in 1824 by Sir William Hilary, an aristocrat and lifeboat man from the Isle of Man.
We are almost unique, in that the lifeboats around our coastline are paid for almost wholly by private charity and fund raising. Since 1824, the RNLI has saved 132,000 lives off our coast. It has running costs of £200,000 a day and, of its 4,000 lifeboat men, there are 200 women, playing a full part in life-saving. It takes £80 million a year to run the lifeboats, £50 million of which comes from bequests. The RNLI is successful in that way. It is all private money. As people often say in the RNLI, a rescue does not start with the lifeboat being launched, but with a man or woman collecting on the street corner. That is important.
There is one slight gripe that the RNLI has. Like many charities, it contributes in terms of VAT. Of the £80 million a year it raises, the RNLI pays the Treasury
£1 million a year in VAT. The Minister is not a Treasury Minister, but perhaps she could convey concerns on this matter, as the RNLI does a great service saving lives off shore.
The importance of the celebration year--I note that the Minister may be taking part in some activities associated with it--is to increase the profile of the RNLI. There is a very strong feeling for the organisation among members of the population who are a little older, but it may not have the same profile in the minds of the younger population. If that successful institution is to continue, we must fund-raise throughout the community, and the 175th anniversary is a useful opportunity to do so.
The institution is very unusual in that it is a royal organisation that serves lifeboats not only throughout the United Kingdom but in southern Ireland. It pre-dates southern Irish independence. After southern Ireland became independent, the lifeboat organisation asked the Government of southern Ireland what they wished it to do, and they said, "Just carry on", which proves that the Irish are very sensible, as basically it is a free service, although it raises funds in southern Ireland as well.
Poole has the busiest lifeboat station in the country. Last year, the all-weather boat had 36 calls and saved two lives, and the inshore boat answered 78 calls and saved five lives. It is a very important institution; I am sure that the Minister recognises that, as I believe that one or two of her relatives have worked for it as lifeboat men.
From 20 and 26 June there is to be a major flotilla of lifeboats in Poole, and there is to be a conference in Bournemouth--the 18th International Lifeboat Federation conference--in which ideas and techniques will be exchanged. That will be a useful opportunity, in this celebration year, for lifeboats to promote themselves.
I pay tribute to the director of the RNLI who retired at the end of last year, Lieutenant-Commander Brian Miles CBE, who did an excellent job in his 34 years at the helm of the lifeboat institution. He will be fondly remembered by the organisation. I wish success to the new director, Andrew Fremantle.
That, if a Statutory Instrument relating to Implementation Bodies (Northern Ireland) shall be laid before the House on Monday 8th March, a Minister of the Crown may, notwithstanding the practice of the House, make without notice a Motion for the approval of the said Instrument.--[Mr. Hill.]
5 Mar 1999 : Column 1410
2.31 pm
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