Justine Greening, the Transport Secretary, is meeting strong opposition in her bid to scrap and prune up to 200 regulations governing everything from passenger safety to seafarers’ protection on British ships as part of an agenda to cut “red tape”.
Organisations from ships’ captains and senior officers to the RMT are furious at the move which comes after Britain is supposed to be signing up to new Maritime Labour Convention to improve seafarers’ rights.
The scrapping of regulations could come into force next year on the 25th anniversary of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster – and the centenary of the sinking of the Titantic.
The proposals have been championed by employers like David Whitehead, chair of the British Ports Association, who says: “Ports legislation comes at us from all directions. Planning, licensing, the environment, navigational safety and security are just some of the sources of the rules and regulations which apply to us. The Red Tape Challenge is a terrific opportunity to look at how we might prune, consolidate, simplify, and even convert into codes of practice this array of maritime legislation.”
But Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, denounced the plan is “an absolute disgrace”.
He said: “This proposed attack would cover regulations to prevent oil pollution and compensation for pollution damage, war pensions for merchant seamen heroes killed in the line of duty, provision of life saving appliances on ships and safe working training for seafarers. This is the Government dancing to the bosses’ agenda at the expense of basic workers’ rights, war pensions, public safety and the environment.”
The union is backed by Nautilius, which represents ships officers, who have criticised the idea on the ministry’s consultation website. Senior members of Nautilius International are demanding the Government negotiate with them if it wants to change maritime laws and regulations.
Stephen Poole, master of a passenger ferry, said: “I do not find any current legislation pertaining to passengers either onerous or excessive.” And Kenneth McWilliam, an officer on a ship, said: “Strong regulations are a tool we need to have at our disposal to assure compliance for our mutual safety.”
There is similar criticism of proposals to relax conditions for seafarers and navigation safety.
Captain Reg Kelso said: “Much of this legislation may appear to have little relevance today, but we should learn from the disastrous outcome of the relaxation of regulations relating to the modus operandi of the Border Agency”.
And one pilot said: “Any relaxation in standards would have an inevitable detrimental impact upon the safety of our ports, people and environment. If commercial port operators are given the opportunity to increase revenue by reducing safety standards, they will. We should be thinking of tightening up our pilotage and port regulations.”
