HC Deb 13 July 1992 vol 211 cc404-7W
Mr. Sproat

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what estimate he has made of(a) foreign earnings by British shipping, (b) earnings of British shipping from the United Kingdom cabotage trade and (c) the City of London's maritime earnings, for each of the last 20 years;

(2) what estimate he has made for the earnings of United Kingdom-owned vessels from cross-trades for each of the last 20 years, respectively;

(3) what latest figure he has for the percentage of United Kingdom shipping earnings that come from cross-trade.

Mr. Norris

The table sets out the available figures. It does not include estimates of earnings on United Kingdom cabotage, information on which is not readily available.

(1) Total International Revenue (2) Revenue from Cross Trades (3) Cross Trades as percentage of total (4) City of London Maritime earnings
1970 1,648 848 51
1971 1,921 1,023 53
1972 1,863 928 50
1973 2,357 1,215 52
1974 2,993 1,413 47
1975 2,875 1,205 42
1976 3,447 1,527 44
1977 3,558 1,594 45
1978 3,174 1,427 45
1979 3,840 1,812 47 218
1980 3,747 1,776 47 204
1981 3,577 1,754 49 319
1982 3,184 1,303 41 283
1983 2,993 1,205 40 279
1984 3,191 1,308 41 297
1985 3,175 1,125 35 254
1986 3,260 1,309 40 245
1987 3,444 1,390 40 249
1988 3,683 1,406 38 352
1989 4,076 1,678 41 450
1990 3,957 1,465 37 694

Notes:—Column 1 includes earnings from United Kingdom passengers and freight on United Kingdom imports.

Column 3 covers ONLY earnings from overseas residents by Baltic Exchange and Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Estimates of earnings from maritime insurance are not readily available.

Estimates for 1991 will be available in the latest edition of the CSO Pink Book ("UK Balance of Payments"), to be published within the next two months.

Mr. Sproat

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many seafarers are currently employed on vessels which are beneficially British-owned on, respectively, the United Kingdom register, the Crown dependencies register, British dependent territories register, and any other register, on the latest date for which he has figures, and on each year for the last 20 years.

Mr. Norris

Employment figures which distinguish between United Kingdom and non-United Kingdom flagged ships are not available for years prior to 1986. Separate statistics for the Crown dependencies and dependent territories registers are not produced. The annual statistics available to the Department do not include seafarers employed by companies which do not belong to the Chamber of Shipping.

With these provisos, the table shows the information requested:

Total 31 December
1986 1987 1988 1989 19911
United Kingdom flag 14,969 12,500 11,671 9,996 10,053
Non-United Kingdom flag 6,742 7,799 8,485 9,296 10,343
Back-up United Kingdom flag 8,308 8,473 8,460 7,136 8,056
Back-up non-United Kingdom flag 2 2 2 2 3,595

Registry:
France Germany, FR Greece Norway2 Denmark3
1972 1,390 2,546 2,241 2,826 1,331
1973 1,376 2,234 2,536 2,758 1,362
1974 1,341 2,088 2,651 2,689 1,349
1975 1,393 1,964 2,743 2,706 1,371
1976 1,388 1,957 2,921 2,759 1,413
1977 1,327 1,975 3,344 2,738 1,407
1978 1,317 1,999 3,666 2,646 1,397
1979 1,247 1,926 3,827 2,531 1,315
1980 1,241 1,906 3,922 2,501 1,253
1981 1,199 1,820 3,710 2,409 1,169
1982 1,171 1,782 3,501 2,409 1,152
1983 1,173 1,769 3,169 2,340 1,112
1984 1,174 1,813 2,904 2,271 1,101
1985 1,136 1,816 2,599 2,219 1,070
1986 984 1,752 2,255 2,107 1,063
1987 954 1,414 1,948 1,979 1,256
1988 930 1,233 1,874 2,078 1,240
1989 921 1,185 1,839 2,304 1,256
1990 900 1,179 1,814 2,557 1,260
1991 910 11,522 1,863 2,577 1,290
1 Includes the former German Democratic Republic.
2 Includes the Norwegian International Register, NIS.
3 Includes the Danish International Register, DIS.

Mr. Sproat

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what figure he has for the number of beneficially British-owned vessels registered, for each of the last 20 years respectively in(a) the Crown dependencies, (b) British dependent territories, (c) the United Kingdom and (d) none of the above;

(2) if he will list the number of vessels, not beneficially British owned, which have been registered on the United Kingdom register, the registers for Crown dependencies and the registers of British dependent territories, in each of the last 20 years respectively.

Mr. Norris

Information is only available from 1988 onwards, as follows—vessels over 100 gross registered tons:

Number of United Kingdom parent owned vessels, by registry and year1
Registry 1988 1989 1990 1991 21992
United Kingdom 1,720 1,668 1,584 1,557 1,542
Crown Dependency 83 68 87 91 91
Dependent Territories 149 141 117 120 119
Foreign 528 536 674 698 709
TOTAL 2,480 2,413 2,462 2,466 2,461
1 As at 31 December.
2 As at 31 March 1992.

Total 31 December
1986 1987 1988 1989 19911
Total 30,019 28,772 28,616 26,428 32,047
1 1 June 1991.
2 Not available.

Mr. Sproat

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what information he has on the number of vessels registered on the(a) French, (b) German, (c) Greek, (d) Norwegian and (e) Danish registers in each of the last 20 years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Norris

The information requested, as at 1 July, is given in the table.

Number of non-United Kingdom parent owned vessels, by registry and year1
Registry 1988 1989 1990 1991 21992
United Kingdom 290 268 279 262 257
Crown Dependency 79 69 49 46 45
Dependent Territories 779 660 619 603 604
1 As at 1 January.
2 As at 31 March 1992.

Mr. Sproat

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what calculation he has made of the average age of the United Kingdom-owned fleet registered in(a) the United Kingdom, (b) the Crown dependencies and (c) the dependent territories at the latest date for which figures are available; and what estimate he has of the average age of vessels of the United Kingdom's main merchant navy competitors.

Mr. Norris

Figures for British-registered fleets and for the fleets of other major shipping registers, are shown in the tables:

Average age1 of the United Kingdom owned trading2 fleet: by registry: 31 March 1992
Average age
Registry Years Months
United Kingdom 16 1
Crown Dependencies 14 2
Dependent territories 12 7
Foreign registries 15 5
All United Kingdom owned ships 14 8
1 Average age of total deadweight.
2 Trading vessels are those which carry cargo or passengers for commercial purposes. Certain vessel types, for example, dredgers and fishing vessels, are therefore deemed "non trading".

Average age1 of trading2 fleets owned in other countries: 31 March 1992
Average age
Years Months
United Kingdom 14 8
Denmark 8 9
France 13 6
Germany 9 6
Greece 15 6
Italy 12 9
Netherlands 9 6
Spain 13 4
All European Community owned ship; 12 5
Liberia 13 3
Panama 12 1
United States of America 19 3
Cyprus 15 11
Norway 13 0
Japan 8 10
All ships 13 4
1 Average age of total deadweight.
2 Trading vessels are those which carry cargo or passengers for commercial purposes. Certain vessel types, for example, dredgers and fishing vessels, are therefore deemed "non-trading".

Mr. Sproat

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the percentage of, respectively, officers and ratings who are British nationals on United Kingdom vessels on(a) the United Kingdom register, (b) Crown dependency registers, (c) British dependent territory registers and (d) foreign registers.

Mr. Norris

The most recent figures relating to seafarers employed by companies which belong to the Chamber of Shipping show that, at 1 June 1991, 97 per cent. of officers and 90 per cent of ratings of United Kingdom-flagged, British-owned, vessels were United Kingdom nationals. The equivalent figures for British-owned, foreign-flagged, vessels, were 85 and 63 per cent. respectively.

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