Summer Lee

Isle of Axholme MP Lee Pitcher has pressed further his campaign for a wide range of measures to improve water safety, including a national awareness campaign before the Summer holidays

A North Lincolnshire MP has said in Parliament deaths by drowning are a "national emergency". Lee Pitcher wants improved water safety measures in law, the Government to run a national water safety awareness campaign before the Summer holidays, and for there to be an assigned minister for water safety.

At a Westminster Hall debate on water safety this week, he said the heartache of drownings "can and must be stopped, and the Government must act to help to stop it". During the May heatwave, at least 19 people died in drownings in the UK, including 13 children.

Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and Isle of Axholme) introduced a private member's bill last year on the topic. Mr Pitcher worked in the water sector for over 20 years, but it was meeting Simon Haycock in Thorne that he has frequently cited as a prompt for his campaigning on water safety.

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Mr Haycock's son, Sam, tragically died at a Yorkshire reservoir in 2021, aged 16. He is the name behind the Mirror 's recently launched 'Saving Lives for Sam' campaign on the issue.

Addressing part of his debate speech to Sam, the Labour MP movingly spoke about meeting Simon Haycock for the first time. "I could see in that moment how he had given every single ounce of himself, having lost you, to ensuring that no one else ever felt that heartache again. Sam, I promised your dad then - and I make that promise to you now - that you will save lives."

Mr Pitcher stated drownings kill more people in the UK each year than cyclists, fires, floods or knife crime, but this was not recognised enough. "Minister, we have a national emergency. This is a burning platform, a ticking time bomb, that needs sorting before the next hot spell."

The Doncaster East and Isle of Axholme thanked the Mirror for its Saving Lives for Sam campaign, and a host of other organisations and people who have raised the issue's profile, including the Royal Life Saving Society UK, National Fire Chiefs Council and Olympians such as Rebecca Adlington. He said together they are calling for:

The Government to launch an urgent public awareness campaign ahead of the Summer holidays, targeting parents and children on TV and social media platforms.

Water companies and others in control of large, high-risk water bodies to ensure correct safety equipment is provided through refreshed risk assessments.

Compulsory school lessons before the holidays on how to survive getting into difficulty in water.

A single person in Government to have accountability for water safety.

Mr Pitcher's private member's bill, known as Sam's Law, be put into law; its proposed measures include a legal duty to ensure access to safety equipment around large bodies of water, and making a separate offence of vandalism of water safety equipment.

Mr Pitcher has also written to the Chancellor calling for VAT relief to be extended to swimming pools and lidos, arguing that children from the most deprived communities are twice as likely to drown and that affordable access to supervised swimming facilities is a matter of public safety, not leisure.

Government minister Emma Hardy responds

"The fatalities we have seen during recent periods of warm weather, and the tragic deaths raised movingly in this room, underline the urgency of the issue," said Hull West and Haltemprice MP Emma Hardy (Labour) as the minister for water and flooding.

She promised Mr Pitcher she will "take up his points about water company safety equipment personally with water companies". She added the Government is doing work on ensuring reservoirs are kept safe and was happy to take that point away personally.

As for the Sam Law's bill itself, she said she was thinking about the best way to achieve its measures, and whether this required legislation. Ms Hardy also highlighted the importance of free swimming lesson initiatives.

"In my constituency, Hull City Council offers free swimming lessons during the summer for children. I hope that is something that many councils are able to offer," she said, adding a personal frustration that Pickering Park Pool was not yet opened, but she would not go further into during the debate.