§ Mr. SproatTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how many fishing vessels have been registered in, respectively, England, Wales and Harwich for each of the last 20 years;
(2) how many vessels from Northern Ireland have been registered in the United Kingdom fishing vessel register each year for the last 20 years.
§ Mr. NorrisThe Department maintains records of the registration of United Kingdom fishing vessels only since 1989 and not in the form that can readily provide the information requested. I will write to the hon. Gentleman as soon as the information has been extracted.
§ Mr. SproatTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give the number and the percentage of fishing vessels on the United Kingdom register of fishing vessels which are beneficially non-British owned; and if he will list such vessels by the country of beneficial ownership.
§ Mr. NorrisThe information requested is as follows:
Number Spain 56 Holland 18 Denmark 2 Belgium 1 Total 177 1 Less than 1 per cent, of the total registered fleet.
§ Mr. SproatTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what information he has on how many persons have been employed as(a) skippers, (b) second hands and (c) engineers on registered United Kingdom fishing vessels in (i) England and (ii) Harwich, for each year since 1972.
§ Mr. NorrisThe Department does not maintain such statistics.