Armed Forces Bill: Divers to be banned from entering military shipwrecks within weeks
Move aims to provide legal protection to the resting places of thousands of sailors
Underwater divers face a ban on raiding British military shipwrecks within weeks.
The Armed Forces Bill, which cleared the Lords at third reading on Tuesday, will give sunken and stranded vessels a special “protected places” label automatically.
Divers will be able to approach wrecks to look at the vessels but will not be allowed to touch or enter them.
It is thought the move will apply legal protections to the resting places of thousands of sailors and mariners.
Under existing laws, more than 100 wrecks are on the list of protected places after ministers stepped in to give them the designation.
Among them is HMS Nottingham, a cruiser which sank during the First World War in 1916 and was discovered in the North Sea around 70 miles off the Northumberland coast last year.
French minesweeper Emile Deschamps, which was lost off the Kent coast in 1940 carrying troops as part of the Dunkirk evacuation, was also listed earlier this year.
By changing the law, the protected places label will apply without the need for a minister to intervene.
Ministers are currently not allowed to designate vessels as protected places if they sank before August 4 1914.
This cut-off date will be lifted, so vessels which sank before the First World War will receive protections.
The Bill, once it is passed, will also establish a Defence Housing Service, tasked with “improving the supply and quality of defence housing”.
Changes will be made to the military justice system, including increased investigatory powers for the service police and enhanced protections for victims of sexual offences.
The legislation will raise the maximum call-up age for the strategic reserve of retired and former military personnel from 55 to 65.
While the Bill has now been backed by MPs in the Commons and peers in the Lords, both Houses of Parliament must settle on the final wording in a tidying up process sometimes known as ping-pong.
Defence minister Lord Coaker has previously described the law as an opportunity to “renew the nation’s contract with those who serve”.
At second reading earlier this year, he said: “This substantial Bill does much for our current and former personnel and the armed forces community as a whole to provide better support, better housing, better protections for victims of crime, and to provide greater resilience for the nation by increasing the size and availability of the strategic reserves.”
The existing Armed Forces Act, which the Bill will update, is due to expire on December 14.