MP calls for water safety campaign after deaths

A North Lincolnshire MP is pressing the government to launch a nationwide water safety campaign before the summer holidays, warning that lives are being lost in "preventable" incidents.

Lee Pitcher, Labour MP for Doncaster East and Isle of Axholme, is calling for urgent action after 18 people, 11 of whom were teenagers, died in open water across the UK in recent weeks during spells of hot weather.

In a letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, he said a coordinated campaign across government departments was needed to reduce the risk as temperatures rise and more people head to open water.

The Department for Education (DfE) has been approached for a comment.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Pitcher introduced a private members' bill - named Sam's Law - last year to bring in measures to improve safety, particularly in freshwater areas.

It came following the death of 16-year-old Sam Haycock, who died at a Yorkshire reservoir in 2021, before Pitcher was elected as an MP.

Last month, 15-year-old Declan Sawyer died in a lake near Lincoln after getting into difficulty in the water.

Last week, Pitcher wrote to Phillipson calling for a national safety campaign to be introduced before the school holidays, urging a joint approach involving various government departments, including education, health, the Home Office and environment.

In the letter, he said the recent drownings were "preventable tragedies that recur every summer, and the scale of loss this year demands an urgent response from the government".

Pitcher told the education secretary he had been working with the Royal Life Saving Society and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents on a scheme, which he described as "a voluntary Water Safety Pledge" for organisations, aimed at improving safety standards and awareness in reservoirs, lakes and quarries.

"Every ones of these deaths is preventable. I urge the government to act before another summer passes with the same devastating consequences," he added.

Part of the bill proposed by the MP called for expanding water safety education in the national curriculum, which was adopted by the DfE, with updated guidance now including personal safety lessons.

However, he is pressing for further action including making it a specific criminal offence to vandalise water safety equipment, the introduction of a legal duty to provide, maintain, and ensure access to safety equipment around large bodies of water.

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