Scottish Ferry Companies

HC Deb 20 April 1988 vol 131 c475W

Mr. Barry Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the level of subsidy paid to the Scottish ferry companies expressed per head of the population in the islands for the last five years.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

The figures requested are as follows :

	£
1983–84	95.41
1984–85	100.91
1985–86	106.42
1986–87	102.75
1987–88	190.82
1 Estimate.

The subsidies are the deficit subsidies paid to Caledonian MacBrayne and the Orkney Islands Shipping Company (OISC) and the fare subsidies payments made to P and O Ferries. Payments to OISC ended in 1986–87 when responsibility for support was transferred to the Orkney Islands council. This figure was £1.0 million in the final year. The population figures are from the 1981 census for Orkney, Shetland, the Outer and Inner Hebrides and islands in the Clyde.