Water Safety

There were 141 deaths in inland open water bodies in 2023, and 1,455 over the last 10 years. That is about 146 people dying every year, most of them children or young adults. Search, rescue and emergency services respond to over 100,000 calls related to water rescues annually. As we continue to have longer, hotter summers, with more people looking for ways to cool off, there is a risk that those numbers will only increase further. Those are worrying figures, but the one that struck home the most for me was the estimate from the Royal Life Saving Society that for every person who dies by drowning, there are more than 10 near misses. That is shocking. It is too many near misses, and too many people just one step away from leaving this world unnecessarily early. That is why I am proposing these measures today.

The first is to create a legal responsibility to provide, maintain and ensure easy and rapid access to safety equipment around reservoirs. Too many reservoirs do not have safety equipment, and where there is equipment, it cannot always be accessed in a timely manner. It is frequently vandalised—an issue I will come to in a moment—and not replaced or repaired. The equipment is often locked away, with a laborious protocol for access. Simon Haycock, Sam’s father, has a simple and creative but game-changing plan for this, using state-of-the-art technology. I hope to help him to progress this concept into reality, to save precious seconds and precious lives. I absolutely understand why these protocols are in place. They were introduced to safeguard lifesaving equipment, which is why we need to turn to the second point of the Bill.

I propose to create a specific criminal offence of the vandalism of safety equipment around bodies of water. It has been recognised that some specific instances of crimes, while covered by a broader category, are so abhorrent that they should exist as a crime in themselves. We have recognised, for example, that assaults on emergency workers who are risking their lives to save others are particularly heinous. We have recognised that domestic abuse cannot just be prosecuted as if it were a simple assault, and we have recognised that slavery is more than just kidnapping and forced labour. It is time to recognise that to destroy, damage or remove lifesaving equipment, and therefore endanger lives, is not simple vandalism.

Finally, the Bill seeks to expand the national curriculum’s water safety learning outcomes to include a requirement to understand the dangers of swimming in open water. Water safety outcomes are already mandated in the national curriculum, and I acknowledge the work of Lord Storey in pushing for the teaching of those outcomes to be mandatory in all schools. When it becomes law, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will ensure that all children receive that education, which is a major step forward.

However, the current learning objectives do not go far enough, as they are about being able to swim and self-rescue. I do not suggest for a moment that having those skills is not important, but there is nothing in the curriculum that requires children to be taught about the dangers and risks of swimming in open water, from cold water shock to invisible currents and hidden objects.

If we want to stop children, especially teenagers, putting their lives at risk, saying, “Don’t do it,” or, “It’s dangerous,” is not the way forward. The best thing we can do is to empower them by giving them the skills and knowledge to recognise the risks and understand the dangers for themselves. Many schools already do this. They go above and beyond the baseline teaching required, working with groups such as the RLSS, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Canal & River Trust. I take my hat off to every school that has led the way, but now it is our job to lead the way by making sure that this life skill and safety education is not left to chance.

There will be a cost to landowners in adding and maintaining safety measures, but reservoirs are fundamentally different from most other bodies of water. They are not naturally occurring; they are created. They are managed and operated as part of an intentional and usually profit-making enterprise. I therefore do not think it is unreasonable that those who own or operate the asset should play their part in installing and maintaining lifesaving equipment.

Ultimately, we are talking about people’s lives—not just the lives that are lost, but the lives of those who lose sons like Sam or who lose daughters, brothers, sisters, friends or partners. There are 146 deaths a year, but how many lives are devastated by those deaths? How many lives are changed forever? And how many more will there be before we do something different?

Simon Haycock, Sam’s father, has channelled his grief into doing something positive, but his words still ring in my ears: “It’s the absence that gets you. One minute your son is there, looking forward to the summer holidays and the next chapter of his life at college, and the next he is gone.” From the moment the first tear fell down my face as he started to retell that story, I knew I had committed to helping him achieve his goal.

I ask all Members to support this Bill today and, more than that, I ask them to take up its proposals and principles by being alive to the need for change and by being aware that there is more that we can and must do.

Ordered,

That Lee Pitcher, Calum Miller, Sorcha Eastwood, Sally Jameson, Sarah Champion, Dr Roz Savage, Jim Shannon, Ben Coleman and Andy Slaughter present the Bill.

Lee Pitcher accordingly presented the Bill.