CYCLISTS who don鈥檛 wear helmets are plainly 鈥渉ead cases鈥�, as is clear from
records of hospital emergency admissions. So I am glad to hear that the
Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions is studying Adrian
Cook and Aziz Sheikh鈥檚 recent report
(快猫短视频, 4 November, p 27).
The researchers from the Imperial College School of Medicine analysed records of
head injuries sustained by cyclists between 1991 and 1995. I asked Lord Whitty,
the junior transport minister, if the government has any plans to draw up
legislation to make wearing helmets compulsory for cyclists.
Whitty replied that there has to be a high level of public acceptance and
voluntary wearing of helmets before compulsory measures can be successfully
introduced. Britain鈥檚 Transport Research Laboratory in Crowthorne, Berkshire,
studied the effect of wearing cycle helmets in 1994 and carried out a repeat
survey in 1996. The overall number of cyclists wearing helmets increased by 18
per cent on major roads over this period. That, he said, is not high enough to
force all cyclists to wear helmets. Enforcement would be difficult and could
affect the levels of cycling. Research suggests that although there have been
fewer cyclist casualties since helmets became compulsory in Australia, cycling
rates have fallen by an even greater number. A further survey is now being
conducted in Britain and the results are expected shortly, he said.
Whitty added that the government has announced that it will exempt all cycle
helmets from VAT. Helmets for children under 14 have, he said, been zero-rated
since 1993 and in his recent Autumn Budget, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced
that this would be extended to include cycle helmets for adults with effect from
1 April 2001.
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Although things are clearly on the move, the government cannot inculcate
common sense. However, I intend to be unsympathetically sharp with any cyclists
coming to me blaming someone else for a head injury if they weren鈥檛 wearing a
helmet.
ONCE, long ago, when on a parliamentary visit to the Royal Air Force staging
post on the island of Gan in the Indian Ocean, I saw an albatross. Few people
ever get to see this mighty ocean wanderer and to experience its true
magnificence, so I was lucky. Sadly, each year now thousands of the birds drown,
snared in the hundreds of baited lines that fishing boats trail on
kilometre-long wires. If only we knew where the birds go each year we might be
able to work out the overlap between areas that the birds and the fisheries use
(快猫短视频, 2 September, p 15).
Elliot Morley, the fisheries minister, tells me that the Commission for the
Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has long recognised the
severity of the so-called bycatch of seabirds on long-line fishing sorties.
Britain has played a leading role in CCAMLR, proposing regulatory measures to
tackle the problem and suggesting new ways of setting the lines to minimise the
seabird bycatch. It has also promoted an agreement on the conservation of
albatrosses and petrels in the southern hemisphere, said Morley.
Australia hosted an intergovernmental meeting in July of countries with
fishing vessels that ply the southern oceans, said Morley. The aim was to draft
an agreement on reducing seabird bycatch. Britain鈥檚 proposal for actions that
parties to the agreement should follow was agreed. These actions include the
conservation, research and monitoring of species and habitat, and public
education in such matters. The hope is that the agreement can be finalised in
the next six months, said Morley.
