HC Deb 21 March 1983 vol 39 cc532-3
13. Mr. Woolmer

asked the Minister for Trade what was the percentage change in the size of the United Kingdom merchant shipping fleet from 1 January 1979 to the latest available date.

Mr. Sproat

Between 1 January 1979 and 31 December 1982 there was a reduction of about 34 per cent. in terms of deadweight tonnage.

Mr. Woolmer

Are not these figures a demonstration that the Minister's written answer on Friday was a betrayal of the British interest as a maritime nation? It is as if a major continental country were willing to see most of its railways ripped up and destroyed and much of the remaining railways sold off and placed under foreign control. The Under-Secretary is turning out to be not so much a mouse that roared as a paper tiger that cannot even squeak.

Mr. Sproat

I shall ignore those complicated similes and remind the hon. Gentleman that although our Merchant Navy has declinmed, that is also true of the Merchant Navies of Norway, France, Germany and Sweden. The Swedish Merchant Navy, for examnple, has declined by 46 per cent. The decline is not confined to Britain. It is worldwide, because of the world recession and world overtonnaging. The main answer is for the British fleet to make itself more competitive in ways which I have already underlined—for example, directing its attention to extra crew costs and overmanning.

Mr. Colvin

Does my hon. Friend agree that, although there is a long seafaring tradition in this country, people still own ships to make money, not for patriotic reasons? What are the Government doing to remove some of the financial and bureaucratic obstacles against registration of ships in the United Kingdom?

Mr. Sproat

Patriotism still plays a large part in the attitude of shipowners and seafaring unions. We saw this splendidly exemplified during the Falklands war.

What are we doing to remove regulatory burdens—for example, the cost of transferring from one flag to the British flag? I recently set up a working group to ascertain how to reduce the burden on the British shipping industry. That reduction in the burden is to be made, together with about a dozen other proposals that I have put forward in the past few months alone.