§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
To which of the British Island and Dependent Territories, listed in their Written Answer of 3rd November 1983 (HL. Deb. Col. 685–6), where facilities for the registration of ships are available, have all the relevant international conventions relating to safety of ships, prevention of pollution, etcetera, been extended; how many ships are registered in those territories to which they have not 1442WA been extended, and of what tonnage; and what progress has been made, in the detailed bilateral talks with the territories concerned, to secure such extension.
§ Lord Lucas of ChilworthThe table below shows the number of tonnage of ships over 500 gross tons registered in the British Islands and Dependent Territories at the end of 1982. Smaller ships have been excluded because most international safety conventions do not apply to them.
1443WA
No. of ships Gross registered tons Isle of Man 7 21,331 Guernsey 1 527 Jersey 3 2,225 Anguilla — — Bermuda 56 667,016 British Virgin Islands 2 1,417 Caymen Islands 105 272,153 Falkland Islands 2 6,400 Gibraltar 10 18,069 Hong Kong 185 4,008,759 Montserrat 1 711 St. Helena 1 3,150 Turks & Caicos Islands 1 514 Most of the conventions currently in force have been or are being extended to Hong Kong and Bermuda, where suitable arrangements for the survey and control of ships already exist. The detailed bilateral talks with Dependent Territories were designed to secure agreement on satisfactory arrangements in accordance with their needs. They have been made aware of the need to choose between the establishment 1444WA of the professional maritime administration required to implement relevant international conventions, and restrictions on the size of ships which should in future be accepted on their registers. The implications of these options are being considered and suitable provision will be made in forthcoming legislation to implement the arrangements.