Award To Mv Derbyshire Family Association

EDM number 1467 in 2003-04, proposed by Brian Iddon on 06/07/2004.

That this House notes the award of the Marine Society's prestigious Thomas Gray Silver Medal to the Derbyshire Family Association (DFA) in honour of their tireless campaign to improve the safety of bulk carriers following the loss of MV Derbyshire in 1980; congratulates Paul Lambert and all members of the DFA, together with all those who gave them technical and moral support, for their hard fought campaign through which the master and crew of MV Derbyshire were cleared by the 1998 inquiry of any blame for the disaster; notes however with regret that bulk carriers continue to sink at an alarming rate; deplores therefore the decision of delegates at the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organisation by a vote of 32 to 22 with 15 abstentions to drop the proposed regulations requiring bulk carriers of over 150 metres built after 2007 to be constructed to an approved double-side skin design; endorses the view of the General Secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation that this is a kick in the teeth for seafarers and a betrayal of all those who have died in bulk carriers; and urges Her Majesty's Government to do everything in its power to have this decision reversed.

This motion has been signed by a total of 52 MPs.