§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there is reason to believe that goods-carrying vehicles on board the "Herald of Free Enterprise" were carrying goods of a type prohibited from carriage on passenger vessels despite such goods not being disclosed on the manifest.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Transport (Lord Brabazon of Tara)My department has been informed by the Belgian authorities that they discovered that one lorry on board the "Herald of Free Enterprise" was carrying a number of substances in drums and other small containers which were prohibited from carriage on a passenger ship. I understand that these substances had been wrongly declared by the consignor.