Merchant Shipping Pollution Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may press the Minister further, because I am not clear about this. She said that not all countries would wish to join the supplementary fund. Most countries belong to the existing system, which we know is inadequate, because, for example, the major catastrophes in Galicia and so on were paid for only partially from the fund. As we said during our previous debate, only 20 per cent has been paid for from the fund, with the rest having to come from governments and so on. The Minister said that this country would be protected if something happened that was caused by one of the states which are not part of the fund. I am not sure how that will work. Presumably they have to have certificates of insurance now. The existing fund did not cover the Galician spill so I am not quite certain how we would be protected by non-participating countries if there were an enormous oil spillage such as the one in Spain. Can the Minister clarify the position now or do we need to think further about it? I am not sure how it will all piece together.