RFA Orange

Tom Brake
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on progress with the recommendations of the Board of Inquiry into the loss of SGIA Mark Petre (UK104390) and LH(CK) Keith Rice (UK 110745) from RFA Orange.

Mr. Ingram
The Board of Inquiry into this tragic incident made seven recommendations:

The accommodation ladder should be raised following the last liberty boat run;

The inherent dangers of a man over board incident should remain the subject of education and safety awareness;

Flotilla guidance on the control, inspection and validation of bar stock and keys should be published;

The RFA drug and alcohol policy and rules controlling ships' bars should recognise cases of ships at anchor;

Command teams should make arrangements as they feel necessary to provide additional supervision when large numbers of crew members have been consuming alcohol ashore;

Royal Fleet Auxiliary Human Resources and Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre should meet to establish whether or not casualty and kinforming procedures should be integrated or inter related;

Incident narratives should be kept as a matter of routine to aid investigations.

All these recommendations have now been adopted.