My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, for ensuring we have this opportunity to press the Department for Transport about the lengthy backlog of maritime safety legislation. I also thank the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee for its work in diligently drawing our attention to the frequent shortfalls in this Government’s attitude to legislative rigour. It usually criticises the Government for taking excess powers for themselves, with too little parliamentary control or scrutiny but, for the backlog in maritime legislation, the problem is the opposite. The committee first drew our attention to this backlog a couple of years ago. I recall a Moses Room debate in which it featured strongly.
When challenged about the backlog, there has been no real explanation from the Government so far. The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, in its report on the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships) (Amendment) Regulations, draws attention to the Department for Transport’s original aim to deal with the backlog by the end of last year. Since the backlog goes as far as 2008, the problem is obviously nothing to do with either Brexit or Covid. The committee is clear that it wants an explanation of why the Department for Transport has not dedicated more resource to clearing the backlog. Listening to noble Lords this evening, I think we are united in that view.
Let us be clear about the impact this has. We are supposed to pride ourselves on being a seagoing nation. The Government trumpet global Britain as their aim. Later this year, they will host COP 26, no doubt
pushing the view that they are tackling climate change head on, yet they are knowingly allowing our maritime industries to work with outdated safety and environmental standards.
In respect of the air pollution regulations that I referred to earlier, it has left the Maritime and Coastguard Agency without adequate enforcement powers for over five years, since 2016. In relation to the bilge alarm regulations that are the subject of this Motion to Regret, the situation is even more grave. First, the rest of the backlog relates to implementing international standards, but the bilge regulations are the product of a domestic maritime accident, and of recommendations made in 2009 by the Maritime Accident Investigation Branch. That was 12 years ago. The Explanatory Memorandum states that this life-saving measure—which the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, points out would cost £100—would apply to 425 ships on the UK register. It also notes that there have been nine similar incidents since 1996, so this is not an overcautious approach.
The response of the Department for Transport is that
“only a relatively small number of vessels are in scope of this proposal so it was initially viewed as disproportionate to advance this regulatory package on its own.”
Since this is a negative instrument, if it had come to us a decade ago, it would have been almost unnoticed and almost certainly not debated. No one here this evening is opposing these regulations. This delay represents an approach which values human life very cheaply. It is unacceptable.
Like the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, I finish with some questions for the Minister. Why is there such a backlog? Exactly how many pieces of legislation are we waiting for? Can the Minister please undertake this evening to place a list of all the overdue legislation in the Library, for public record? Why has the Department for Transport not assigned more staff to clearing this backlog, and what is its target date for doing so? What assessment have the Government made of the impact of our outdated maritime safety and environmental legislation on working practices aboard UK-registered vessels, and what has been the impact on our international reputation as a maritime power? Finally, the Minister will be aware of the phrase “flags of convenience”. Do the Government have any evidence of ships seeking to register in the UK specifically because our maritime legislation is out of date and does not adhere to the highest and best standards?
Those engaged in our maritime industries, as the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, and other noble Lords, have indicated, feel overlooked and disregarded. The Government need to put that right.
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