Maritime War Graves (No. 2)

EDM number 591 in 2000-01, proposed by Andrew George on 23/04/2001.

That this House applauds the work of the Friends of War Memorials, the Royal Naval Association and survivors' associations in raising attention to the growing problem of invasive diving on maritime war graves and welcomes the present Government review; notes that because they were not designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 these graves lack the necessary legal protection; welcomes efforts which are now being made by the sports diver-training agencies to, where necessary, change sports divers' attitudes towards war graves; believes that in order to protect maritime war graves from the minority of irresponsible divers who plunder them the Government should invoke the 1986 Act in its entirety, designating first as controlled sites all known British and foreign naval vessels lying within British territorial waters which contain or are thought to contain human remains as controlled sites with restricted access for at least 100 years from the date of the loss of the vessel; and exhorts all sports divers to abide by the conditions of these designations whilst providing for controlled diving under the direction of licensed individuals for survey purposes so as to identify fresh damage and unauthorised diving and thus render unnecessary the need for further legislation.

This motion has been signed by a total of 51 MPs.