§ Sir David Priceasked the Secretary of State for Transport what was the size of the British registered merchant navy in 1979, measured by numbers of ships and by deadweight tonnage; and what are the equivalent figures for 1986.
§ Mr. MooreAt end April 1986, the latest period for which figures are available, the United Kingdom registered merchant fleet of vessels of 500 gross tons and over consisted of 656 ships with a total of 16.5 million deadweight tons. This compares with 1,382 ships of 43.8 million deadweight tons at end April 1979. These figures exclude Government-owned vessels, offshore supply vessels, tugs, fishing vessels and other non-trading vessels.