Merchant Shipping (Light Dues) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

Follow that, my Lords. The noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, has covered the whole matter from the GLAs’ point of view in great detail. Like him, I must declare an interest as a non-pecuniary Elder Brother of Trinity House. This takes me back some 20 years to the days when the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, and others were Shipping Ministers in this House and when light dues regularly came up for debate when a relevant statutory instrument came forward. Ship owners were just as vociferous then in disliking what was put before them, because, in those days, light dues were still rising. As we have heard, they have not risen since 1993 and have been reduced five times since then, culminating in the previous 10 per cent reduction three years ago. With hindsight, I think that we could agree that it was possibly a poor decision to reduce light dues then. As was put forward by the general lighthouse authorities, if they were increased slightly then, we would not be faced with this problem today, where ship owners are greatly affronted by what they see as exorbitant rises. The fact remains that the General Lighthouse Fund would run out of money in the next year if this statutory instrument was not agreed. Safety would begin to suffer because certain lights would have to be put out. That is completely unacceptable. We are talking about maintaining the safety of navigation for all ships, which is of vital importance. I shall pick up a few points that the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, made, and elaborate on them. It has to be remembered about the General Lighthouse Fund that the general lighthouse authorities also lease their ships out for commercial work. In the course of the year, that brings in something like £3 million to the lighthouse fund. It was agreed in this House to allow the lighthouse authorities to do that outside commercial work, in the days when the noble Viscount, Lord Goschen, was Shipping Minister. That was a move forward, which has enabled the lighthouse authorities to generate extra income for the fund. Since the late 1970s, I have had an association with Trinity House, and I speak for Trinity House specifically now. I have seen for myself the enormous changes that have taken place since then; in those days, we had manned lighthouses and light vessels and a reasonable sized fleet. That has been cut drastically and we now have a very efficient, slimmed-down organisation; all the lights and buoys are controlled by one person sitting in a control room at Harwich. It is all automated and great use is made of solar power. In the old days, there were gas cylinders involved. I remember one particular lighthouse that generated its own gas in large cylinders. During an annual inspection, the inspecting Elder Brother used to flick the mantle off with his pen and the wonderful Emmet-like machinery clicked into action, clicked round and a new mantle dropped down and lit with a plop. That was the old days; we are now a very different, modern, outward-thinking organisation. There is another aspect to what Trinity House and the lighthouse authorities do that has not been mentioned. Ships generally use global positioning satellites for their navigation these days; the system is supplied by the Americans, who are quite at liberty to cut it off at will at any time. It has had its glitches from time to time and the EU, mindful of this, has set in motion its own alternative system, called Galileo, which is several years behind schedule and grossly over budget. I think that only two satellites have been put up so far. Also, there is the underlying intention, as I understand, that it will be used more for charging us to drive on our roads in Europe than by mariners. The cost at the moment is £3 billion. The lighthouse authorities have been working on another system—a much cheaper, alternative system—which is eLoran. It is a low-frequency, long-range, terrestrial navigation system; trials have been going on for three years, and it seems to produce 10 metres of accuracy, which is very good. That has cost £1 million a year, which we can place against £3 billion, with no result out of Galileo as yet. Another worrying thing about the present level-position satellite system is that a test was done last year using a very simple portable handheld device like a mobile phone, which can be bought on the internet and run by a couple of torch batteries. It could be used to jam the GPS signal for 20 miles out to sea. So there are all sorts of worries with the present system, and the lighthouse authorities are trying to set up this alternative, which must be supported. As has been said, we are talking about very small figures for this increase. A large modern container ship costs in the order of $150 million, and we are talking about a few thousand pounds. Seen overall, it is a very small sum, although I understand in these straitened times that ship owners are upset. They are trying to cut their costs. However, the downturn has followed three or four exceptional years in shipping where a lot of people have made an extraordinary amount of money—although not all. Some, in order to maintain their market share, have either absorbed other companies or, as often happens in good times—it has happened throughout history in shipping—they have rushed to order new and bigger ships. A lot of large companies have a large number of very expensive ships on order, so one can understand that they are in difficulties. The sums are astronomical compared with this comparatively small rise in light dues. Ship owners say, "We don't need lights". They may say that, but any navigator or mariner worth his salt would disagree entirely. A fixed navigational source is worth its weight in gold. Technology is wonderful, but it goes wrong more frequently than one likes to admit. Our light dues are transparent, as has been said. We are not the only ones to have them: roughly a third of countries charge a levy like us, including Belgium, Greece, Malaysia, South Africa, Panama, Australia, Sudan and others, so we are not alone in having our charges up front. The "user pays" principle is supported by the EU, the present Government and the previous Administration. Another third of countries have a mix—a levy and part Exchequer paid—and in the remaining third, payment is from the Exchequer. The ship owners have had a holiday on light dues over the past three years and the time has come when they must pay more. I know that they do not like it. I understand that the Irish question is still under discussion between the Governments. It would be nice to think that something will come out of that, although the agreement is under an international treaty and one does not walk away from international treaties. I am sure that an answer can be found. In summing up, I return to the fact that we cannot compromise safety at sea. The General Lighthouse Fund must be sufficient to meet the needs of our navigation aids. I support the order.