Most of his recommendations in the 1994 report 'Safer Ships and Cleaner Seas', following the grounding of the oil tanker Braer in the Shetlands, were accepted by Government and established guidelines for the prevention of pollution from merchant shipping. These included the establishing of Marine Environmental High Risk Areas.

A further inquiry chaired by Lord Donaldson followed the 1996 grounding of the oil tanker Sea Empress in western Wales.

One of his many resulting recommendations led to the creation of the Secretary of State's Representative (Sosrep), a single individual empowered to command pollution response and salvage operations in the wake of a maritime casualty. This vision of an incident response structure free from political interference established the Sosrep concept as a respected role model of best practice worldwide.

Acclaimed as one of Britain's greatest ever shipping judges, who made a major contribution to the development of maritime law, Lord Donaldson also carried out a major independent review of evidence relating to the controversial 1980 loss of the bulk carrier Derbyshire .

MJ Information No: 21024