Ben Bradshaw MP
House of Commons 
London 
SW1A 0AA


Dear Ben Bradshaw

I write to you as one of the 150,000 active UK divers. 

Two Governmental working parties have been set up by the Department for Culture Media and Sport to look at wreck legislation. One group is looking at salvage law, the other at wreck designation and protection.

The original consultation called for “A positive approach to managing the marine historic environment, which will be transparent, inclusive, effective and sustainable and central to social, environmental and economic agendas at a local as well as national level and a legislative framework that protects the marine historic environment but enables appropriate management techniques to be applied and evolve.”

No organisation has more interest in the identification and preservation of wrecks than the active UK diving community, whose co-operation will greatly assist efforts to protect and catalogue our underwater heritage. Indeed it was amateur divers, members of the British Sub-Aqua Club, who discovered the wreck of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's famous flagship. I understand that the Department for Culture Media and Sport has not permitted any representation on these working groups from the BSAC or any other diving organisation. Hardly inclusive.

I would therefore be grateful if you would write, on my behalf, to the Minister responsible for this at the DCMS, David Lammy, asking that representatives from UK diving organisations are invited to join and contribute to the working parties and let me have sight of the Minister’s reply.

Yours sincerely,