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General Lighthouse Authorities (Beacons: Automatic Identification System) Order 2006

My Lords, I, too, support this order and I declare a non-pecuniary interest as an Elder Brother of Trinity House. I believe that this is an important advance in safety and navigation, and much to be welcomed. As has already been mentioned, it is important to keep in mind craft which are less than 300 tonnes as the system matures in years to come and older systems are phased out. I think that that has been half-addressed already. We can look forward to a reduction in costs as we move away from some of the older and more expensive systems. Finally, I believe that this will keep us in step with other major maritime nations which are going down this route. Not least, it will also chime with the developments in the Ocean Security Initiative, which is now gathering international momentum. We may see this AIS system deployed in other littoral states as well.