Clause 20 - Exercise of powers at or under sea
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
5:00 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State (Local and Regional Government), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is right. I do not believe that there are any others, but this could allow a contribution to rescue at sea beyond the territorial waters. That is why it covers operations both at and under the sea. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has a general duty to manage the response of UK authorities to territorial incidents
in territorial waters and beyond. The MCA does not maintain its own core of firefighters, but will enter into agreements with other service providers, including fire and rescue services, to provide a response to fires and other emergencies at sea, and to provide fire crews equipped and trained to undertake such work. Under clause 9, the Secretary of State will have the power to impose a duty on a fire and rescue authority in relation to emergencies offshore.
A little glitch has occurred, which is to do with the ability of fire and rescue authorities to charge for such work. That was covered by the provision for the fire and rescue authorities to charge under the Marine Safety Act 2003, which amended section 3 of the Fire Services Act 1947. It has unfortunately come to light that in the repeal of the 1947 Act, that provision will be lost. We will undoubtedly need to introduce an appropriate amendment in future to resolve that issue. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising it, because it has provided an opportunity for me to alert Committee members to it.
I have just been advised that technically, under the Channel Tunnel Act 1987, the channel tunnel is part of Kent, so does not extend beyond Britain's territorial waters—an interesting observation. [Interruption.] I am not sure how the French will respond to that, but we do not want to risk getting into such difficult territory far from our area of responsibility.