draft Merchant Shipping (Alcohol) (prescribed limits amendment) Regulations 2015

Christian Matheson Excerpts

Tuesday 15th September 2015 General Committees

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

When my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Justin Madders) texted me to let me know that he and I had been selected to serve on this Committee and I replied with enthusiasm, I suspect that he thought either that I was being facetious or that I had seen an opportunity for cavilling with hon. Members on the Government Benches. I have to say, this is a matter of grave concern to me for reasons that I will explain.

I have no problems with lowering the limits, which seem entirely sensible. However, the regulations are predicated on the authority of the International Maritime Organisation and my recent experience is that it is not fit for purpose. Therefore, any regulations based on the IMO’s management need to be looked at carefully.

I am concerned about the inability of other countries to enforce the regulations and I am not quite clear about the testing regime at sea. My experience of this matter, limited as it is, comes from a tragic but continuing constituency case started by my predecessor as MP for Chester, the Conservative, Stephen Mosley, to whom I pay tribute for his work. The case continues, causing anguish for parents of one of my constituents who has been missing at sea since March 2011.

Rebecca Coriam was working on a Disney cruise liner, which was sailing out of Los Angeles to Mexico. It was registered in the Bahamas, but it was managed by a British-owned company. I would like to think that the International Maritime Organisation had a role to play in co-ordinating the various different authorities, including those in the UK, to protect seafarers and their passengers. Rebecca was working as a nursery assistant on a Disney cruise liner. She had worked on a couple of tours previously for Disney, so she was well suited to and versed in her duties.

[The Chair]

Order. Mr Matheson, the regulations are about reducing alcohol limits. Therefore, that is the scope of what we are discussing this morning. Do you intend to move on specifically to the reduction of alcohol limits?

[Christian Matheson]

Indeed, Ms Dorries, I will do that. If I may, I will also express my concern about the inability to monitor those limits at sea under the auspices of the International Maritime Organisation.

When Rebecca went missing, there was video footage of the last moments that she was seen. In the investigation undertaken briefly by the Bahamas police—because it was a Bahamas-registered ship—the authorities suggested that Rebecca had been drinking. I have to say that there was no evidence that that was the case and I am not clear how the regulations will protect any British citizens from being accused of drinking as opposed to actually drinking. The allegation of being drunk at sea, which was used to obfuscate the case that Rebecca’s family faces—[Interruption.]

[The Chair]

Order. I have total sympathy with your constituent and the case you are trying to highlight, Mr Matheson, but the regulations are about the alcohol limits related to mariners responsible for ships, not passengers or people who are enjoying cruising or whatever you are trying to highlight. Are your comments going to be specific to this piece of legislation?

[Christian Matheson]

They are, Ms Dorries, because Rebecca was an employee on the ship and the statutory instrument makes it clear that anyone who is an employee serving on the ship with responsibility for the safety of passengers—Rebecca had particular responsibility for the safety of children—must be tested under the regulations. From my experience of the International Maritime Organisation and indeed the Bahamas Government, which was responsible for undertaking the testing, I do not believe that the testing regime in the regulations is fit for purpose. Under the terms of the regulations, Rebecca was absolutely responsible for the safety of passengers.

The current testing regime, managed by the Bahamas authorities in that case, but under the auspices of the International Maritime Organisation, is unfit for purpose. I cannot see how testing will take place on the high seas and in cases such as Rebecca’s in which someone goes missing overboard and a multiplicity of different authorities are involved—a British-owned company and a Bahamas-owned ship sailing out of the United States—it is not clear how British citizens’ or seafarers’ wellbeing, or that of the passengers who are the responsibility of the seafarers, will be looked after.

The Minister might wish to know that the Coriams and I have now hit a brick wall. No one seems to want or to be able to take this case forward, and there does not seem to be any suggestion of how the International Maritime Organisation may wish to take responsibility for this cross-country problem. The authorities in the Bahamas have refused to correspond with me. When I have been to the International Maritime Organisation, it has backed the Bahamas. Ms Dorries, I wonder whether I might take this opportunity to seek a meeting with the Minister to discuss this case, particularly in relation to the allegation that my late constituent had been drinking, when there is no evidence of that. Of course, if the regulations had been in force, there might have been more possibility of that testing happening. If I may take this opportunity, Ms Dorries, I am very keen to seek such a meeting. I am grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to raise my concerns about the operation of this statutory instrument.