21 June 2006
Read the Government’s response to this epetition.
Full response:
Dear Mr Marsden
Thank you for your petition about guidelines and legislation around water attractions. I would like to express my deep sympathy to you and your wife on the loss of your son and commend you for your determination and courage in acting to spare other parents from suffering a similar tragedy.
Following the recent adjournment debate about Matthew’s death, Anne McGuire, Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, ensured that details of Matthew’s accident were passed to the National Water Safety Forum. The Government set up this body following its review into inland water safety. The Forum brings together organisations involved in water safety and is concerned with preventative action and education. I believe that the key is to ensure that bodies such as these can help raise awareness of the dangers that open water can present to young children.
The operators of caravan parks and other undertakings already have duties under health and safety legislation.
These requirements impose a clear responsibility on all employers, whose operations could pose risks to the public, to take reasonable steps to minimise those risks. Operators who have such responsibilities are best placed to ensure that risks are sensibly managed and that the public are protected from harm. Where they fail to meet their legal responsibilities, they may be subject to enforcement action, including prosecution under health and safety law. Responsibility for enforcing health and safety law at the caravan park where Matthew was tragically drowned lay with the local authority, Gwynedd County Council, rather than with the Health and Safety Executive. As you know, the local authority carried out an investigation of the accident but did not identify a need for formal enforcement action.
I believe that more specific legislation on water features is not the answer. It is extremely doubtful that it would make a difference in those cases where shortcomings were due to laxity in compliance. It might even run the risk of creating requirements that would prove impracticable and lead to the closure of essentially safe amenities.
As a parent, I fully understand that you wish to see as much action as possible taken to ensure that others do not suffer the tragic loss that you have experienced. This is completely understandable. I see many issues across Government where the first human instinct is to rush into taking action. As a politician, one of the hardest things I have to do is often to step back from acting on this instinct to ensure that we act proportionately, fairly and seek to reflect the balance of views and expert opinion. While I know that you will be disappointed that we do not propose to legislate as you have suggested, I hope that my explanation will, in part, help to soften this disappointment.
Thank you for writing to me about Matthew.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Blair
delicious
digg
facebook
