HC Deb 17 July 1989 vol 157 c18W
Mr. Robert Banks

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the total number of passenger ferries operating from the United Kingdom; how many have sewage treatment plants; and what constraints exist over the discharge of raw and treated sewerage in the Channel and other confined water.

Mr. Portillo

Annex IV of the international convention for the prevention of pollution from ships 1973–78, which deals with sewage, would prohibit the discharge of all untreated sewage into the sea within four miles from land and place stringent conditions on discharges beyond that distance. It has yet to come into force. Although there is no present obligation on shipowners, it is believed that about half the United Kingdom-registered class II ferries are fitted with sewage treatment plants and most of the others with sewage holding tanks.