Merchant Shipping (Pollution) Bill [Lords]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, with which I have considerable sympathy. I shall raise two points that relate to his intervention in a moment, if I may, rather than doing so now. He makes a very strong point and I hope that the Minister has taken it on board. It is estimated that when the Prestige sank in 2002 after releasing 64,000 tonnes of crude oil, more than 3,000 km of coastline were ruined. Almost 800,000 birds were killed and the Iberian guillemot became extinct. The financial cost of the spill is expected to top $1 billion. To date, only 15 per cent. of the compensation has been paid, causing untold harm on the coasts of Spain, Portugal and France. That is why the supplementary fund protocol is so important. Not all spills will cost less than $300 million in future, just as they have not in the past. Clean-ups need to begin immediately—not after a long period of ascertaining the final cost of the operation. The new fund, which we support strongly, will provide $1 billion, which is a big increase, and will rush in aid when it is needed. However, in moving on to the ground covered by the hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor) in his earlier intervention, I want to press the Government to tell the House what progress is being made on preventing disasters from affecting the most environmentally important areas of this country. The British Chamber of Shipping told me that, worldwide, oil pollution fell by just over 90 per cent. between 1992—a carefully chosen year—and 2004. Nevertheless, what are we doing in terms of prevention? There is a slight danger that the Bill will mean that we focus on locking the porthole after the oil has bolted. Lord Donaldson’s inquiry contained more than 100 recommendations, and the Minister was right to say that some had been adopted. However, nothing has been done yet about one of the main suggestions, although the Government have long promised to act. Lord Donaldson recommended the creation of marine environmental high-risk areas, so that tankers and other vessels carrying dangerous cargoes would be routed away from environmentally sensitive regions. The Minister is my constituency neighbour, and we share a stretch of coast on a very busy shipping lane. It would be difficult to route vessels away from that lane, but that would be practical for other areas where there is a particular concern for environmental factors. Will the Minister say what progress has been made with that proposal?