THE GRIEVING mother of a nine-year-old girl who drowned in a school boating accident has described compensation offered for her daughter's death as an insult.

Lesley Bee has pledged to campaign to change the law which values the life of any child who dies in an accident at £7,500.

Her daughter Elizabeth died when the small boat with eight of classmates, including her twin sister Victoria from their Fareham school capsized in Portsmouth Harbour in 1999.

She has been offered compensation for Elizabeth's death - without any admission of liability for Elizabeth's by Boundary Oak School - but under the Fatal Accident Act, the amount of money payable is limited to £7,500 specifically for a child's death.

Mrs Bee, who lives at Waterlooville, has been joined by MPs who support her condemnation of the law and have pledged to call for a review.

She said: "People think I'm getting loads of money. They say I'm going to get lots of compensation, but they are missing the point.

"No amount of money will ever bring back Elizabeth and there is no value I can put on Elizabeth, she was beyond valuation.

"But her death has devastated my life and Victoria will suffer for years, so that has a value of some kind of value.

"To discover that I can only be offered £7,500 is frankly, a shocking insult to Elizabeth's name.

"The law needs to be changed to bring it up to date with compensation paid these days in less serious cases where people don't die.

"People who suffer from stress or sex discrimination get paid much more nowadays. I'm not devaluing their suffering, but how can you only value a little girl's life at the price of the cheapest car.''

Boundary Oak School was criticised by an inquest jury into Elizabeth's death. The jury's verdict of accidental death contributed to by neglect could now lead to a criminal prosecution of the school or teacher Paul Dove, who was in charge of the boating party.

The Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to prosecute as it reviews the new inquest evidence.

Mrs Bee is also considering taking out a civil case for compensation, depending on the outcome of any prosecution.

Mrs Bee said: "In my view any compensation pay-out has to contain an element of deterrent or punishment, but considering it costs about £6,000 a year to send pupils to Boundary Oak, then there is little punitive element here.''

Fareham MP Mark Hoban and Havant MP David Willetts both called for the Fatal Accident Act to be reviewed.

Mr Hoban said: "This is a derisory value to put on any child's life, especially considering it is dwarf by pay-outs for work-related stress, for instance.''

Mr Willetts said the offer was derisory and called for a fundamental re-evaluation of the act.

All the children in the boat are eligible to claim compensation. Elizabeth's sister Victoria suffers nightmares and receives counselling due to the accident. She has until she is 18 to make a claim. Her mother said Victoria is still too traumatised to be assessed for post traumatic stress disorder.