Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill

Wendy Morton Excerpts

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 20th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for correcting the misunderstanding about that quote. He is absolutely right that it is a total misrepresentation of what the late Mrs Thatcher was trying to say.

It is worth noting that the Wolfenden committee broke new ground, as it was the first time openly homosexual citizens in this country gave evidence to a Government committee. It is perhaps evidence of how contentious the Wolfenden report was at the time that it took a further 10 years before its recommendations were implemented and decriminalisation took place in the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994—the Act that the Bill is concerned with—was seen at the time as a liberalising Act, mainly because it reduced the age of consent for homosexual activity. In addition, sections 146 and 147 repealed the clauses in the 1967 Act that made homosexual activity in the armed forces and on merchant navy vessels a criminal offence. That was done, however, partially because of the anomaly that an individual could not be prosecuted under criminal law but could be prosecuted under service law for that same offence.

However, sections 146(4) and 147(3), which I hope the Bill will repeal, specifically required that nothing in the Act should prevent homosexual activity from constituting grounds for dismissal. They were added to the Act through non-Government amendments during the House of Lords Committee stage. Those amendments were supported by peers who wished to have the then policy on administrative dismissal in the armed forces on the face of the Act. The amendments were initially resisted by the Minister at the time, but they were pressed to a Division, which the Government lost. So although the criminal penalty was taken away, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation remained. During the passage of the 1994 Act, the anomaly that there were no equivalent provisions for heterosexual activity on board a ship, for example, was pressed by some Members of this House and the other place.

The equivalent provisions for the armed forces in the 1994 Act were struck down as a result of a European Court of Human Rights case in 2000. In Smith and Grady v. the United Kingdom, the Court found against the armed forces policy at the time of investigating whether personnel were of homosexual orientation or had engaged in homosexual activity and of pursuing administrative discharge as a matter of policy if that was found to be the case.

The case raised a number of issues relating to the place of homosexual men and women in the armed forces, but I want to touch on one aspect in particular: bullying. The submissions to the Court during the case argued that one reason for the armed forces policy at the time was the threat of

“assaults on homosexuals, bullying and harassment of homosexuals, ostracism and avoidance”.

The ECHR responded, as we would today, by arguing that that should be dealt with robustly through clear codes of conduct, complaint procedures and training programmes, in the same way as racial and sexual harassment or bullying. In its decision, the Court said:

“The Court considers it important to note, in the first place, the approach already adopted by the armed forces to deal with racial discrimination and with racial and sexual harassment and bullying…The January 1996 Directive, for example, imposed both a strict code of conduct on every soldier together with disciplinary rules to deal with any inappropriate behaviour and conduct. This dual approach was supplemented with information leaflets and training programmes, the army emphasising the need for high standards of personal conduct and for respect for others.”

As a result of that judgment and the implementation of appropriate codes and procedures to tackle bullying and harassment of homosexual servicemen and women, the armed forces are clearly not today as they were at the time of that case; nor is the merchant navy.

However, despite that very positive development in recent years, we need to acknowledge that homophobic bullying is still a live issue today, particularly in schools. No one should be assaulted, bullied or harassed as a result of their sexual orientation, and it is important to recognise that such things can be particularly damaging when they happen among one’s close peers in such a crucial and formative environment.

I am pleased the Government have made £2.8 million available to tackle homophobic bullying. The programme funded by this additional money began in September 2016 and will run to March 2019 to prevent and respond in a sustained way to homophobic bullying across primary and secondary schools in England. As part of the programme, which will build on the previous £2 million grant, which was announced in October 2014, the Government are funding six initiatives that will deliver whole-school approaches and staff training to help prevent and tackle homophobic bullying. I hope that the passage of the Bill today, in reaffirming that there is no place for discriminatory employment practices, will also send a clear signal that homophobic bullying and harassment are completely unacceptable.

The firms that constitute the merchant navy were not actually within the scope of the 2000 Smith and Grady v. the United Kingdom case, because they were private employers, and cases brought in respect of European convention rights are brought against Governments rather than private individuals or entities.

The provisions relating to the merchant navy were eventually superseded by the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, which integrated into UK law EU equal treatment directive 2000/78/EC.

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is setting out in great detail the background to the Bill. Perhaps he can confirm whether UK merchant ships are classified as residences as well as workplaces, which means that shipowners can make up their own rules about what is and is not allowed to happen on board their ships.

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[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

I am pleased to be able to contribute to the debate, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (John Glen) for introducing the Bill. It repeals provisions in sections 146 and 147 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 that purport to preserve the right to dismiss a seafarer from a UK-registered merchant navy vessel for an act of homosexuality. Although neither of the provisions has any effect as a consequence of other legislation, most notably the Equality Act 2010, repealing them would prevent any possible misunderstanding about their current effect, as has been said, and thus would tidy up the statute book.

There are other good reasons for repealing the provisions, but first it is necessary to reflect on the legal background and legislative developments of the past 50 years that have enabled us to consider doing so. Sections 146(4) and 147(3) of the 1994 Act have been rendered obsolete by the gradual development of LGBT rights. Fifty years ago, section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised homosexual acts in private in England and Wales. However, section 1(5) of that Act ensured that committing a homosexual act was still an offence in military law, while section 2 stipulated that a homosexual act on a merchant ship continued to be an offence.

Moving forward a generation, we come to the 1994 Act—the very Act to which the Bill refers. That Act covered a plethora of areas, including young offenders, bail arrangements, justice, police powers, trespassing, squatters, terrorism and prisons, to name just a few. Part 11 of the Act covered topics relating to homosexuality. Perhaps most notably, section 145 reduced the homosexual age of consent from 21 to 18. It has since been lowered again to 16. Elements of sections 146 and 147 removed the criminal liability that remained under the 1967 Act.

Sections 146(4) and 147(3) were added to the Bill that became the 1994 Act as a result of non-Government amendments. I understand that the proposer of the amendments was concerned that making homosexual conduct legal in the armed forces and merchant navy might mean that homosexuals could not be dismissed for engaging in such conduct, or that that could not be used as the basis of prosecution under military discipline. The same provisions were designed to restrict the meaning of the rest of the 1994 Act, and as a consequence they have no effect on any other measure. Indeed, the wording of sections 146 and 147 makes it possible, by means of other legislation and Government policy, to prevent anyone from being dismissed solely on the basis of homosexual conduct.

As has been mentioned with regard to the armed forces, in September 1999, in the case of Smith and Grady v. the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the ban on homosexuals in the UK armed forces broke the European convention on human rights, which safeguards the right to privacy. Until that point, the position of the Ministry of Defence had always been that homosexuals in the military were bad for morale and that they were vulnerable to blackmail from foreign intelligence agencies. Indeed, the armed forces policy guidelines on homosexuality stated that the homosexual lifestyle was “incompatible” with military life

“because of the close physical conditions in which personnel often have to live and work, but also because homosexual behaviour can cause offence, polarise relationships, induce ill-discipline and…damage morale and unit effectiveness.”

As a result of the ban, dozens of homosexual servicemen were forced to leave the services every year as a consequence of the prejudice that they encountered. Following the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, the UK Government formally lifted the ban on 12 January 2000.

With regard to the merchant navy, dismissing a crew member from a merchant ship because of a homosexual act—that is, specifically because the act was homosexual, as distinct from dismissal for participating in a sexual act irrespective of sexual orientation—would constitute sexual orientation discrimination, which contravenes regulation 4 of the Equality Act 2010 (Work on Ships and Hovercraft) Regulations 2011 in Great Britain. In Northern Ireland, regulation 6 of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003 achieves the same outcome.

The provisions of the 1994 Act thus have no current legal effect. Over the years, both sections have been gradually amended until they have reached their present composition, whereby they make reference only to the merchant navy. The measures in those sections that dealt with offences relating to military discipline were repealed by the Armed Forces Act 2006, and all references to the armed forces were removed by section 14(3) of the Armed Forces Act 2016.

Section 14(3) of the 2016 Act was the consequence of a Government amendment tabled on Report. It was initially thought that it was not possible to repeal the aspects of sections 146 and 147 of the 1994 Act relating to the armed forces because they were tied up with the merchant navy, which was outside the scope of the 2016 Bill. The Government subsequently agreed to decouple the two issues, so they dealt in the 2016 Act with those aspects of sections 146 and 147 of the 1994 Act that related to the military and stated that the aspects dealing with the merchant navy would be addressed as soon as possible.

The Bill that we are debating advocates a similar approach to that taken by the Government in the 2016 Act. Although the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster), suggested last year that the Department for Transport intended to deal with references to the merchant navy as soon as possible, my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury has beaten the Department to it with his Bill. I am pleased to note that the Government intended to address the matter as soon as possible, and I welcome the comments made in that regard by the Under-Secretary in this Chamber, and by the Minister of State for Defence, Earl Howe, in the other place. I also welcome the cross-party support for that approach and the comments made by the hon. Members for North Durham (Mr Jones) and for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) during proceedings on the 2016 Act.

As I have stated, neither section 146(4) nor section 147(3) has any legal effect because of other legislation. Both provisions are obsolete, and their removal would tidy up the statute book. That fact alone is ample justification for introducing the Bill, but there are other far more significant reasons for doing so. Even though the provisions have no effect, their policy implications are ambiguous. Indeed, they could easily be interpreted as a clear statement that being homosexual is incompatible with employment on merchant vessels, and that homosexuals are unwelcome in the merchant navy.

[Wendy Morton]

My hon. Friend is doing a sterling job of setting out the background to and the detail of the Bill. Does he agree that it is important to recognise that, as is the case in most of society, the position of LGBT sailors has markedly improved over the last 20 years? That is not to say that I will not support the Bill—I will—but that fact is clear from the merchant navy code of conduct, which sets out much more up-to-date disciplinary and grievance processes, as well as guidelines for preventing bullying and harassment.

[Craig Whittaker]

What my hon. Friend might not know about my past is that I grew up in Australia and my father was in the merchant navy. I am going back many years, but I know from some of the old seafaring stories he used to tell me when I was a much younger man that bullying in the navy, particularly the bullying of homosexual and bi people, was absolutely rife, which was totally unacceptable. I therefore absolutely agree that the conditions for LGBT personnel on merchant vessels are now far better than they were in the days when my father was in the merchant navy, but I dare say that the Bill will make those conditions even better.

The “Code of Conduct for the Merchant Navy” was approved in 2013. It was agreed between Nautilus International, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and the UK Chamber of Shipping, and approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The code takes into account the unique nature of working on a merchant ship and the fact that seafaring is a civilian occupation that imposes on seafarers certain demands that are not found in land-based jobs. To pick up my hon. Friend’s intervention, one of the key aspects of working on a merchant vessel is that those doing so live and work together with their fellow colleagues, so if they do not get on and there is bullying and intimidation, there is far greater stress for those on the receiving end of the bullying, because of the confined environment of the ships they work on.

Furthermore, “Guidance on Eliminating Shipboard Harassment and Bullying”, which is produced by the International Chamber of Shipping and the International Transport Workers Federation, affirms the importance of eliminating discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. It states:

“All seafarers have the right to work without suffering harassment and bullying”.

It also outlines

“the serious consequences for the physical and emotional health of seafarers”

subject to such bullying. The guidance makes it explicit that harassment and bullying based on a person’s sexual orientation is unacceptable, and sets out formal complaints and investigations procedures to ensure that all incidents of homophobic bullying are dealt with properly.

It is absolutely clear that the sentiment expressed in sections 146(4) and 147(3) of the 1994 Act is not shared by those in the shipping industry and is incompatible with their current policies, aims and values. The implication of the provisions as they currently stand—that being homosexual is incompatible with employment on merchant vessels—is outdated and unhelpful, so removing them and any possible ambiguity should be welcomed. Both the code of conduct and the guidance make it clear that LGBT people are welcome in the merchant navy. Any suggestion to the contrary is clearly wrong, and efforts to avoid any possible misunderstanding by removing such references from the statute book will, I am sure, receive the support of the industry.

There are a number of practical reasons for removing the sections and therefore for supporting the Bill. As several Members have already told me, doing so is also highly symbolic. In a sense, that aspect is arguably the most compelling reason for supporting the Bill. As I have outlined, legislation and Government policy relating to LGBT people have changed substantially during the past 50 years. However, the fact that we are discussing this issue today demonstrates that there is still a way to go.

Beginning with the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised homosexual acts in private, we have witnessed many important milestones for LGBT rights over recent decades. I have already mentioned some of them, such as equalising the age of consent, removing the ban on serving in the armed forces and outlawing all other discrimination practices. Other measures implemented prior to 2010 include, but are not limited to, the repeal of section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, and civil partnership legislation.

Since 2010, there have been further measures to enhance LGBT equality, as well as a consistent desire from the Government to tackle any remaining prejudices and discrimination. As my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury said, £2.8 million has been made available to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in primary and secondary schools in England as part of a three-year project that will finish in March 2019. The Government have worked alongside LGBT organisations to combat online abuse and harassment through the launch of the Stop Online Abuse website. Sport England has been asked to ensure that the involvement of LGBT people in sport receives an equal emphasis as part of its efforts to encourage wider involvement in sport.

Furthermore, for those who doubt how far we have come in a relatively short period, it is worth reflecting on the fact that our armed forces came second in the world’s first league table of the most LGBT-friendly militaries in the world in 2014, 14 years after the ban on serving in the military was formally overturned. We now have the Women and Equalities Committee, which is able to hold the Government to account on their approach to these issues. We have seen the development of the world’s first LGBT action plan produced by Government, and a number of measures to address the specific challenges that trans people face in their everyday lives.

The Government have also built on the posthumous pardon of Alan Turing with their announcement in October that those convicted for consensual same-sex relationships before the change in the law would be formally pardoned through an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill. However, the most high-profile measure was the introduction of marriage for same-sex couples. The latest figures for England and Wales suggest that, since the first same-sex marriages took place in March 2014, over 15,000 marriages were recorded in the 15 months following the change in the law. The total figure will now be somewhat higher.

Sadly, we cannot change the events of the past or the discrimination and prejudice that LGBT people often experienced in society. We can, however, change the present. We can seek to tackle discrimination and intolerance where it still exists, and we can lead by example in this House when it comes to challenging legislation that is plainly inappropriate and inconsistent with the values that we hold today. For obvious reasons, approving this Bill will not generate the headlines that many of the legislative changes of the past have generated, and nor will it be remembered in the same way, but it is symbolic none the less. Its purpose is very much in keeping with the other legal and policy developments and changes within society that have radically improved LGBT rights over the past 50 years.

The Bill must be seen through the prism of that changing landscape. It is a small but important change to ensure that LGBT people are protected from discrimination in the workplace. If the Bill is passed, it will no doubt be seen in years to come as part the gradual journey of improving LGBT rights in this country and of ending the historical prejudice that LGBT people have experienced. I am pleased to have been able to contribute to the debate, and I am pleased to support the Bill.

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[Peter Heaton-Jones]

No; we will not count our chickens, but I hope that in a few weeks or months it will be the case. He is truly becoming a legislative leviathan, and I congratulate him on it.

My hon. Friend follows in a long line of Back Benchers who have piloted important legislative developments in the arena of social policy through the House, and I welcome his addition to this important historical trend. I want to say, in complete support of my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley, how struck I was by the speech made by my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart). His comments, the way he framed them, and his personal testimony express better than any legal language could why we need to do this today. It is a personal matter for so many people and it has been swept under the carpet for so long. Even if this is a tidying-up exercise, if I can use that phrase, even if it is purely a symbolic change to make sure that different bits of our legislation do not give the wrong message, that sort of personal testimony is why it is so vital that we make it. I echo my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley in saying that, if anyone outside this place reads just one speech in today’s debate, it should be that of my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South.

As has been said, the change that the Bill proposes is largely a symbolic one, but it is still vital. The Bill seeks to rectify an anachronism in our current legislation, which is the law as it applies to merchant ships. The Bill would repeal certain aspects of sections 146 and 147 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which suggest that it would be lawful to dismiss a seafarer for a homosexual act. Those sections repealed in England, Wales and Scotland and revoked in Northern Ireland laws that criminalised homosexual acts in the armed forces and aboard merchant ships. However, the two particular aspects of those sections that my hon. Friend’s Bill seeks to address today still maintain that homosexual acts could provide grounds for discharging a member of Her Majesty’s armed forces or dismissing a member of the crew of a UK merchant ship. The Armed Forces Act 2016 repealed those parts of that previous Act as they maintain their hold over the Navy—Her Majesty’s armed forces—but they left in place the aspects relating to merchant ships. As such, we still have on the statute book in this country legislation that says:

“Nothing contained in this section shall prevent a homosexual act from constituting a ground for dismissing a member of the crew of a United Kingdom merchant ship from that ship.”

I am afraid that that wording on the statute book—even though it has been superseded, I am so pleased to say, by the Equality Act 2010—gives rise to a perception that is the last thing we want as a country that has moved so far to equalise the rights of the LGBT community. That is why, as symbolic as it may be, the change that the Bill seeks to introduce is so important.

Merchant ships are in the unusual position of being both workplaces and residences, as my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), who has a habit of appearing back in her place just as she is being referred to—it is very clever; it is a skill that all Members should develop—pointed out correctly in an intervention, and that is partly why we are in the position that we are in. Many owners of merchant ships are able—because they are the outright owners of a residence as well as a workplace—to introduce and enforce rules and regulations on those vessels, as anyone in their own home can do for a visitor. They are able to ban alcohol, or smoking even by seamen in their own cabins while off duty. They can impose stringent restrictions on many other activities on health and safety grounds or merely because they feel that it is the right thing in their own residence. The danger is that, with this historical language on the statute books, that could be extended, and because merchant ships are viewed as both a residence and a workplace, one fears that some merchant ship owners could extend those powers to homosexual acts, which would be inappropriate.

[Wendy Morton]

Perhaps I should start by saying that I am not an apparition; this is Wendy Morton, the Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills. If anyone wants to learn the techniques of bobbing in and out of the Chamber, they should remember that it is always done with the permission of the Chair.

It is almost 50 years since the Sexual Offences Act 1967, and things have moved on a great deal. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is high time—or high tide almost—that the legislation was changed and that the anomaly regarding residences and workplaces was dealt with?

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[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

It is an absolute pleasure to be here today, on what for many of us would be a constituency Friday, to speak in support of the Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill. I would like to start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (John Glen), who has done sterling work in bringing the Bill to the Chamber today. As we have heard, this is his second private Member’s Bill, so he really does understand the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. I am also trying to get a second private Member’s Bill through this place during this Parliament, so perhaps we are in a bit of competition. But fear not, I will do all I can to make sure that my hon. Friend’s Bill has a safe passage through this place, because it really is an important piece of legislation.

I also pay tribute to all those Members who have contributed to the debate. In particular, I was struck by the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart), who brought great personal insight to the Bill, and that has really added to the debate, so we should thank him for that. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr Mak). He has clearly put a lot of work into his research into the Bill, and he referred to not only the shipping heritage in his constituency but the armed forces parliamentary scheme, which I and other Members on both sides of the House have been involved with.

In turning my attention to the Bill, I want to start with a little background to it. After all, it is specific to the merchant navy, and while we talk so often in this place about the armed forces, we may all be a little guilty of forgetting that we have a merchant navy as well. I speak as the wife of a former seafarer, although he was in the Royal Navy, not the merchant navy, and it was good to hear other Members speak of the experiences of members of their own families with connections to the merchant navy.

It is important that we do not forget that Britain has depended on civilian cargo ships in wartime to import food and raw materials, as well as to transport soldiers overseas and to keep them supplied. The title “merchant navy” was granted by King George V after the first world war to recognise the contribution made by merchant sailors. The merchant navy has long played a part in the heritage and the history of our country, playing its part in shaping the nation we have today.

Britain’s merchant fleet was the largest in the world during both world wars. In 1939, a third of the world’s merchant ships were British, and there were 200,000 sailors. Many merchant seamen came from parts of the British empire, such as India, Hong Kong and west African countries. Sometimes, women also served at sea in the merchant navy. We can see just how important the merchant navy is, and that gives greater emphasis to the importance of the Bill.

During both world wars, Germany operated a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare—of sinking merchant vessels on sight. By the end of the first world war, more than 3,000 British-flagged merchant and fishing vessels had been sunk, and nearly 15,000 merchant seamen had died. During the second world war, 4,700 British-flagged ships were sunk, and more than 29,000 merchant seamen died.

In putting together my contribution to the debate, I tried to put into some sort of perspective the contribution the merchant navy has made to our country over the years. That figure of 29,000 merchant seamen who lost their lives is almost half the electorate of my constituency, so it is not insignificant.

Turning to more recent times, some of us will remember the Falklands war in 1982 and the merchant ship the Atlantic Conveyor, which sank while under tow after being hit by two Exocet missiles. The ship, which was registered in Liverpool and built by Swan Hunter, was requisitioned during the Falklands war. The wreck site is designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Twelve men died and the ship’s master, Captain Ian North, was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The Atlantic Conveyor was the first British merchant vessel lost at sea to enemy fire since world war two. Again, that shows the importance of the merchant navy. It is really important that we do all we can to ensure the safe passage of the Bill through this place, so that members of the merchant navy are put on an equal footing to those of the Royal Navy.

In honour of the sacrifices made in the two world wars, the merchant navy lay wreaths of remembrance alongside the armed forces in the annual Remembrance Day service. Following many years of lobbying to bring about official recognition of the sacrifices made by merchant seafarers in the two world wars and since, Merchant Navy Day became an official day of remembrance.

Today’s merchant navy is, understandably, much smaller than it was in the days of world wars one and two. According to the statistics that I found in the CIA’s “The World Factbook”, there are just over 500 UK- registered ships in the merchant navy today. That is still a significant number, so a significant number of seafarers will potentially benefit from the Bill, should it receive Royal Assent.

In my research I also found a number of notable merchant navy personnel. Putting homosexuality aside, I found that Joseph Conrad joined the merchant navy in 1874, rising through the ranks of second mate and first mate to become master in 1886. He then left to write professionally, becoming one of the 20th century’s greatest novelists. James Cook, the British explorer, was also a member of the merchant navy, as was Victoria Drummond MBE, Britain’s first woman ship’s engineer.

A couple of other names are worth mentioning. John Masefield served in the merchant navy in the 1890s and later become poet laureate, and the right hon. John Prescott, who is a member of the Opposition, served in the merchant navy as a steward, then joined this place and became Deputy Prime Minister in the Blair Administration.

What I am endeavouring to do is to set out just how important the merchant navy is. Members of the UK merchant navy have been awarded the Victoria Cross, the George Cross, the George medal, the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Service Cross for their actions while serving. Those who served in either world war also received relevant campaign medals.

I would now like to turn to the issue of homosexuality in the merchant navy. Between 1950 and the 1980s, life at sea was one of the few opportunities for gay men to be themselves. They were able to embrace life at sea with enthusiasm and often with more confidence than they felt at home on land. They would often take part in performances and cruise shows and be members of the catering staff. Although men could no longer be prosecuted for gay acts after 1967, when homosexuality was legalised by the Sexual Offences Act, persecution in everyday life did not end. During that era, many gay men chose a career in the merchant navy because—this is hard to believe in many ways—it was more tolerant than other professions.

It is also hard to believe that it was in 1967 that the Sexual Offences Act received Royal Assent. It amended the law in England and Wales by decriminalising homosexual acts in private between two men. And here we are, almost 50 years later. Many of us were not even born—or only just—when that Act was introduced. Much has been said about this Bill being tidying-up legislation and symbolic, but I think that we have started to understand that it is about much more than that. I believe that it will mean a great deal to the men and women who serve in the merchant navy. It is about making sure that the commitment given during proceedings on the Armed Forces Act 2016 to address the matter is followed through. The Bill will go a long way towards removing any remaining misunderstanding or ambiguity.

Documents released by the Public Record Office reveal that commanders buried a series of scandals that involved, among other things, homosexual affairs on an aircraft carrier, transsexual prostitutes in the far east and hundreds of men using a male brothel in Bermuda. Even today, as the law stands, what is to stop someone investigating employment rights and coming up with the view that LGBT people are not welcome in the merchant navy? The Bill is important because it will put the truth beyond doubt, and it will show that we continue to take the issue very seriously.

The Armed Forces Act amended the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to make sure that a member of the armed forces could not be discharged for being homosexual. The Ministry of Defence has insisted that it is committed to helping recruits achieve their full potential irrespective of sexual orientation, and all three branches of the forces have featured in Stonewall’s top 100 gay-friendly employers.

In 2005, the Royal Navy joined Stonewall’s diversity champions programme, and it was followed in 2006 by the Royal Air Force and in 2008 by the British Army. The programme was designed to promote good working conditions for all existing and potential employees and to ensure that there was equal treatment. At London Pride in 2008, all three armed services marched in uniform for the first time. Although the Armed Forces Act addressed the outstanding historical issue that we are discussing for the armed forces, as we have heard, it did not cover the merchant navy. That is why we are here today.

I want to touch on homosexuality in the armed forces, highlight the differences between the merchant navy and the Royal Navy, and explain why the Bill matters. I will build on some of the points that have been made by my hon. Friends. Before 2000, openly gay people were banned from service, and people who suspected personnel of being gay had a duty to report them to the authorities. In 1999, the European Court of Human Rights found that the armed forces had breached the rights of LGBT personnel by firing them after discovering their sexuality. The then Labour Government, led by Tony Blair, announced that the Government would comply with the ruling and immediately lift the ban. Changes to the law came into effect from 12 January 2000.

Since 2000, gay men and lesbians have been allowed to serve openly in the UK’s armed forces, and that policy change means that personnel can no longer be fired merely because of their sexuality. It was years before the US did the same thing by repealing “Don’t ask, don’t tell” in 2011. Interestingly, in 2008 it emerged that 58 former military staff had been paid £3.7 million in compensation because the armed forces agreed that their human rights had been violated. It is also worth noting that the Royal Navy was so gripped by a security panic over gay servicemen in the late 1960s that admirals believed that at least half of the fleet had “sinned homosexually”.

It has been fascinating to research the background to the Bill and to gain a greater understanding of the merchant navy; as I have said, we talk much more about the Royal Navy and the services in this place. I want to share just one or two more facts and figures that I have unearthed, which further reinforce the need for us to give my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury all our support today and at all remaining stages of the Bill, to make sure that it has safe passage through the House on its journey to Royal Assent.

The evidence shows that as many as 1,000 gay men serving in the merchant navy supported the British effort in the Falklands war. That is no insignificant number of individuals who gave their time to serve our country. Is it not incumbent on us to support the Bill and give them something back, whether that is symbolic or something deeper? I spoke earlier about the Falklands war, so I will not dwell on it further, except to say that the Bill will give us the opportunity to put the Royal Navy and the merchant navy on an equal footing in relation to homosexuality.

Believe it or not, Thomas Cromwell piloted through Parliament an Act for the punishment of the vice of buggery—it does not feel like a parliamentary word, but it is the correct term—in 1533, during the reign of Henry VIII. I believe that was the first Act of our secular law to punish homosexuality. The sentence back then was death, with the state confiscating property, goods and chattels. Before that Act, matters concerning sodomy were dealt with in ecclesiastical law in an equally harsh way. The 1533 Act remained in force until it was replaced by the Offences against the Person Act 1828. The death sentence continued under that Act until it was revised in 1861, when the sentence was replaced with one of 10 years’ to life imprisonment. As I said earlier, we are still trying—50 years on from the Sexual Offences Act—to ensure that equality is restored to these individuals and that we move forward as a country in reducing and redressing discrimination.

I am starting to draw my speech to a close, but I want to turn to the Bill very briefly. It would repeal sections 146 and 147 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which would mean that someone can no longer be dismissed from a merchant ship for being gay. I believe it is a good Bill. It is needed because UK merchant ships are classified as residences as well as workplaces, which means that shipowners have been able to make their own rules about what is and is not allowed to happen on board. That point was made by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), who is not in his place at the moment, and other hon. Friends. Much has been made about the fact that merchant ships are classified as residences, but when my husband was in the Royal Navy, men served on ships—as, indeed, do men and now women—in very close confinement, so it is right and proper to deal through the Bill with what we can call an anomaly. The Bill would mean that someone can no longer be dismissed for being gay, and it would bring the laws affecting merchant shipping into line with modern equality laws.

It is fair to say that these sections of the 1994 Act no longer have any legal effect, as we heard, because of other legislation—the Equality Act 2010—but that is not an excuse for not supporting the Bill. As I keep reiterating, the Bill is important and it matters, and it is time that we did something; dealing with these provisions is long overdue. Repealing the sections is symbolic, but it will prevent any misunderstanding, and it will go a long way towards starting to redress this inequality.

I am very conscious of the fact that time is marching on, but I want to touch very briefly on the issue of LGBT equality. The UK has a proud record of promoting equality for LGBT people, including the introduction of marriage for same-sex people. The UK continues to be recognised as one of the most progressive in Europe on LGBT rights, and it has one of the world’s strongest legislative frameworks to prevent and tackle discrimination. The Bill builds on all that we have done in Parliament over the years. As other hon. Members have explained so eloquently, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes South, let us get on and do all we can to make sure we give it the safe passage it deserves.