Water Safety: Drowning Prevention

Rob Butler Excerpts

Thursday 13th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Rob Butler (Aylesbury) (Con)]

I rise to speak in this debate with mixed emotions: pleased that the important topic of water safety and the prevention of drowning is being raised in the House, but with sorrow because it stems from a tragic loss—that of 12-year-old Sunnah Khan, who drowned in May in the sea close to the pier at Bournemouth. Sunnah’s mum, Stephanie, is a constituent of mine and is in the Public Gallery this afternoon with her own mother. May I, on behalf of the entire House, extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to Stephanie and her family, and also to the family and friends of the young man who died on the same day at Bournemouth, Joe Abbess? Joe was just 17.

Stephanie told me a little about her daughter:

“Sunnah was such a happy girl with a large multi-faith family and more friends than I’ve ever had in my life! She was so smart and bright. Extremely pretty and very tall. She was the glue that held our family together… The summer holidays are fast approaching, and I am concerned about the likelihood that more parents will receive the devastating news that their child has drowned. This pain I could not wish upon my worst enemy, it is a pain that has no word to describe it. The only thing getting me through is the thought that I may be able to do something to prevent this from happening again.”

That, Madam Deputy Speaker, is why we are here today: to try to improve water safety as we approach the summer holidays, and with World Drowning Prevention Day on 25 July.

Last month, the Royal Life Saving Society UK published its “National Drowning Report UK”, which was marked by an event here in Parliament attended by Mr Speaker. I am grateful to the RLSS for assisting me in preparing for today’s debate and for allowing me to quote from its report in detail. That report was supported by the National Water Safety Forum, which comprises numerous charities and organisations dedicated to improving safety in the water, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. The report makes sobering reading. Last year, there were 226 water-related accidental fatalities in the UK. Although that was a fall from the previous year, the number of children who died increased by 46% compared with the five-year average.

In Sunnah’s case, it is thought that there was a rip current or rip tide off Bournemouth beach on that terrible day. In her email, Stephanie said:

“The water should be a safe space for people to enjoy especially on a lifeguarded beach, and if it cannot be made safe then people should not be allowed to swim in it. I am not naive and I understand that the sea is a natural and unpredictable body of water. This does not mean that more cannot be done to reduce the prevalence of drowning. I am 32 years old and only learned what a rip current was last year when I went to Cornwall. And to be honest with you I am still unsure what exactly it is.

Now I am a nurse, and an educated woman. I would say that I am fairly intelligent, and I think if I only learnt that last year, there will be thousands of people who get into the water every year who do not know what a riptide is. More worrying still is that I myself only knew how to escape a rip current following my daughter’s death. Which means again, thousands of people will not know this. None of my children knew what a rip current was.

This to me is unacceptable. I believe this is a matter for Parliament to address in how they can make sure this does not happen again. I need to do something to honour my daughter and protect other children from this harm.”

Let me address that specifically now, quoting from the Royal Life Saving Society website. It explains that:

“Rip currents are currents of water typically flowing from the shoreline back out to sea. They are commonly formed by a build-up of water on the beach caused by wave and tidal motion”.

Crucially, its advice on how to escape rip tides is:

“Do not swim against the current. Swim parallel to the shore—this makes sure that you are swimming out of and not back into the rip current. Once out of the rip current, swim towards the shore, being careful to avoid being drawn back in by feeder currents.”

While that advice now forms part of the official record of the House of Commons, we must recognise that few children are watching our proceedings or reading Hansard, so there is a strong case for water safety to be taught to children in particular. The most obvious way to do so is at school, so I am glad that the Minister responding this afternoon is from the Department for Education, and I am grateful to her for the conversation we have already had this afternoon about the topic.

This is not the first time such concerns have been raised in Parliament. In 2021, a petition achieved more than 108,000 signatures calling for increased curriculum content about water safety as part of swimming lessons. That was debated on 12 July that year. As we speak, Lord Storey has a private Member’s Bill before their lordships’ House that would

“require the Secretary of State to include water safety and training in prevention of drowning as a compulsory part of the curriculum for all schools in England”.

I notified Lord Storey that I would be referring to it in this House today.

I recognise that there are countless requests to the Department for Education to add subjects to the curriculum. Likewise, I know that many schools already provide swimming lessons, although that is not quite the same as teaching water safety in its broadest sense. However, according to the RLSS, provision for children to access statutory school swimming is decreasing. Worryingly, it notes that children from low-income and ethnically diverse communities in particular are less likely to access statutory school swimming. That must be of concern when we know that children from low-income and ethnically diverse communities are disproportionately over-represented in child drownings.

Indeed, the thematic report by the National Child Mortality Database at Bristol University, which was published only this morning, found that in cases of drowning, the death rate for children and young people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods was more than twice that of children and young people living in the least deprived neighbourhoods. It also found that children described as black or black British have the highest death rate, at more than three times that of children from white or white British backgrounds. So I respectfully suggest to the Minister that it is worth giving additional consideration to increasing education on water safety in our schools.

There are other ideas to increase awareness closer to the water itself. One is to alert children and adults to risks with increased provision of signs at the beach. Stephanie has asked me to bring that recommendation to the House’s attention in particular, as she believes that would bring a significant benefit. After all, if someone sees a sign immediately before entering the water, the advice will be very fresh in the mind. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution has a standard sign that can be used to warn about rip currents, and I have been pleased to learn that it is used in many places, but obviously not everywhere. Therefore, there is undoubtedly scope for even more prominent displays of warnings.

Stephanie has also asked me to make a suggestion regarding the visibility of swimmers. Sadly, it took a considerable amount of time to find Sunnah in the water, which may have been because she was wearing a dark-coloured swimming costume. Stephanie would like to see far more brightly-coloured swimwear so that people can be easily identified in the water in the case of an emergency. Stephanie said to me:

“Every minute counts. If Sunnah had been wearing something bright, she might still have been here.”

This message is endorsed by lifesaving charities. As the RNLI pointed out to me, lifeboats are orange specifically so that they can be seen in poor conditions. So bright or fluorescent swim hats and tow floats are particularly effective.

It is particularly important to recognise that deaths do not occur only at the coast. In fact, last year 60% of fatalities were on inland waterways—rivers, canals, lakes or lochs, quarries or reservoirs—so water safety matters to everyone, wherever they live, whether by the sea or inland. In fact, last year, 90% of the children who drowned in open water died inland.

Right hon. and hon. Members may recall that, shortly before Christmas, four children died at a lake in Kingshurst in Solihull in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Meriden (Saqib Bhatti). He, too, is campaigning to improve teaching on water safety with the Department for Education and asked me to remind the House of that.

This is not an issue that affects only children—far from it. Last year, the average age of an accidental death in inland water was 35; at the coast, it was 51. So we need to ensure that we raise awareness in an age-appropriate way. I pay tribute to the many organisations already working to achieve that, including the RLSS, which I referred to, the Canal & River Trust, the National Water Safety Forum, the RNLI, Swim England and the National Fire Chiefs Council. Whatever our age, there is clear advice from the RNLI on how to keep safe in the water: swim at a lifeguarded beach, between the red and yellow flags; in an emergency, call 999 and ask for the coastguard if at sea or for the fire service if inland; and if you find yourself in difficulty in the water, float to live. There is more detail on all those tips on the RNLI website.

The summer holidays are almost upon us. Many of us will be heading to lakes, rivers and the coast to spend time relaxing. The water is a great place to enjoy, but we need to do it safely, because, at the moment, too many people are dying when they do not need to. As Stephanie says:

“We can do better. There’s no need for this to keep happening. It’s preventable. If we teach it at school, we are setting them up for a lifetime of safe water.”