§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what was the number and proportion of foreign vessles visiting British ports in each calendar year from 1979 to have been(a) inspected, (b) found to have serious defects, (c) other defects and (d) pollution defects; what
1983 1984 1985 1986 1987–882 1988–892 Ships visiting UK ports 6,445 6,463 6,579 16,500 6,425 6,158 Ships inspected 2,557 2,529 2,532 2,788 2,188 1,830 Per cent. inspected 39.7 39.1 38.5 — 34.0 29.7 1 Estimated. 2 Financial year. The Department's records do not differentiate between ships with serious defects and others. In 1988–89, of the 1,830 ships inspected 900 were found to have defects of which 87 were pollution related. Information for other years is not readily available.
Under the memorandum of understanding on port state control the target inspection rate is 25 per cent. of individual ships visiting a signatory's ports. The United Kingdom has always exceeded the target figure. Port state control inspection figures are circulated to signatories of the memorandum but on a confidential basis. All signatories aim to achieve the same 25 per cent. target.
No information is available for the United States of America.