Merchant Shipping (Light Dues) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, for raising this issue today because it is a matter of considerable concern to all noble Lords who have taken part, and what a galaxy of experience they have. Despite recent improvements many are still worried about the efficiency of the GLAs, especially at the centre rather than at the "front line". What is not in doubt is the skill, dedication, and indeed courage, of the men and women who do the physical work of installing, maintaining and repairing our navigational aids, not just the lights and beacons on land but the navigational buoys which have to be put in place or moved using the modern fleet of specialist ships. Another operation is the marking of wrecks. These tasks might be relatively easy to perform today on the south coast but I suggest that it is a rather different matter off the north-west coast of Scotland in the middle of winter. We and all the seafarers who rely on their efforts owe them a debt of gratitude. They need have nothing to fear from our deliberations today. My noble friend Lord Glentoran has made his contribution from the Back Benches and is a commissioner of Irish Lights. Noble Lords should note that he and others do this commendable work unpaid. Our debate will be much more balanced as a result of his contributions and other noble Lords close to the GLAs. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, has two main concerns. The secondary one is the efficiency of the GLAs and the need for the increase in light dues. There may well have been significant efficiency savings in recent years and we know that all the lighthouses have been automatic since 1998. However, this does not mean that all GLAs are 100 per cent efficient. I confess that I have no idea how they measure up, and I accept that I need to do further research. I easily found the Northern Lighthouse Board’s annual report on the internet, but I did not manage to find the Trinity House report—but I will find it in due course. Some have argued that light dues are a trifling amount compared to other shipping costs; but they are not trifling in absolute terms. After April next year, the cost will be 41 pence per net registered tonne. The capping of the chargeable tonnage will be increased to 50,000 tonnes, and the number of chargeable voyages increased from seven to nine. Fortunately, the charges will be capped at £17,200. Unless my sums are wrong, this means that a 10,000-tonne ship regularly coming to UK ports will pay just under £37,000 a year, which is not insignificant. The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, warned of the dangers of reducing port business due to increases in light dues. My noble friend Lord Glentoran and others skilfully sought to explain why no more major efficiencies are possible in the GLAs. He has suggested that it would cost between £25 million and £70 million to set up a single GLA. I do not find my noble friend’s arguments persuasive, and he has increased my desire for knowledge of the organisation of the GLAs. I am sure that Trinity House will be very keen to help in educating me. Noble Lords who claim that no further efficiency savings are possible will have to explain why we need two corporate centres. Why in the UK do we need two chief executives, two finance directors, two HR departments and two procurement departments? The list goes on. Perhaps the Minister can explain why we need two GLAs in the United Kingdom. I have another question for the Minister which I hope he can answer. What is the total head count of Trinity House and what is the split between the corporate headquarters and the operational side? I can find very little information about that on the Trinity House website. The primary concern of the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, and the substantive point of his Motion, is the subsidy of the Irish Lights. I will not repeat his arguments, because he put them so well. However, I suspect that there is a lot of history involved. For a long time, it may have been desirable to subsidise the Irish Lights, but nowadays most of the UK’s general public would be surprised to hear that we, through our light dues, are subsidising the transport infrastructure of another successful and important EU state. After all, we do not subsidise the French navigational aids in the same way, even though we make extensive use of them—a point well made by the noble Lord, Lord Dykes. The noble Lord, Lord Greenway, made several important points, but perhaps one of the most important was about the dangers of relying on the US-operated GPS system and the slow progress of Galileo. We must keep the terrestrial aids supplied by the GLAs. The noble Lord said that they are worth their weight in gold; he is right. The noble Lord, Lord Robertson, amplified those points, and he also mentioned the dangers of a cyber-attack on a GPS-type system. He is absolutely right. My noble friend Lord Sterling made his important contribution from the interesting position of having an interest in both the shipping industry and Trinity House. His most important assertion is that the operations of the GLAs are already very efficient. However, the concern is not the front-line operations, but the corporate centre. My noble friend also suggested that private yachts should pay dues. He will recognise that there are some practical difficulties in collecting what might be relatively small amounts of money. On the other hand, private yachts are just as dependent on navigational aids as commercial shipping. It is important to understand the effect of the Motion of the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley. It does not stop the order, not least because, quite properly, the order is going through under the negative procedure, and of course the Motion does not oppose the order’s contents. There is no question of the GLAs running out of money, so the noble Lords, Lord Greenway and Lord Robertson, need have no worries on that point. The light dues will increase no matter what your Lordships decide this afternoon. There is concern about the efficiency of the GLAs but the Motion does not make a judgment on that. If it did, I would not be able to support it due to insufficient evidence. The noble Lord is asking your Lordships to take a view on whether the light dues raised in the UK should be used to subsidise the operation of the Irish Lights. If he is minded to test the opinion of the House, I shall support him.