Frank Doran
Main Page: Frank Doran (Labour - Aberdeen North)
Chris Huhne
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to draw attention to that. In fact, both in our regime and in the United States regime, blow-out preventers are checked regularly. One of the mysteries appears to be the fact that the blow-out preventer was checked within two weeks of the disaster and still failed. Clearly, that is one of the things that the investigation must get to the bottom of. One of the things that we will need to learn about operating at such depths and pressures is whether yet further fail-safe mechanisms need to be built into the blow-out preventers, and we will certainly look at that. He is also absolutely right to draw attention to the human tragedy and, indeed, the importance of maintaining safety for all those who work in the industry.
Mr Frank Doran (Aberdeen North) (Lab)
I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement, particularly the extra resources for technical investigations, but it is not only the technology that is important. BP has identified that three of the seven causes of the spill that it is aware of so far were the result of people ignoring warning signs. That tends to happen when people are badly trained, inexperienced or afraid to challenge their superiors, and it is one of the key lessons that we learned from the Piper Alpha tragedy. Is the Secretary of State aware that over the past few years we have made huge progress in the North sea in involving workers? There are three trade union representatives on the new body that has been set up to examine the spill, which is extremely important. However, there is a major problem in the drilling industry, which has—how shall I put it?—an outdated attitude to employment relations. Those employers include Transocean, which is involved in this issue. Until the problem of worker involvement in the drilling industry in the North sea is sorted out, we will continue to have problems.
Chris Huhne
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I am certainly happy to look at the issues that he raises. It is important to have trade union oversight of these matters in cases where the companies are unionised; it provides another perspective and a guarantee to other employees that safety will be given the attention that it deserves.