Merchant Shipping

HC Deb 24 May 1990 vol 173 cc286-7W

Mr. Speed

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he will set in hand an examination of the state of the British merchant shipping industry.

Mr. Parkinson

I am pleased to announce the setting up of a joint working party, under my chairmanship and that of the president of the General Council of British Shipping, to establish the present circumstances in which the British shipping industry operates both domestically and internationally. The working party has been asked to report no later than 14 September 1990.

Mr. Evennett

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the current size of the British merchant fleet in terms of(a) the total number of vessels and (b) total tonnage; and what were the comparable figures 10 and 20 years ago.

Mr. McLoughlin

The information requested has been set out in the form of a table:

Trading vessels registered in the United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies of 500 gross registered tonnes (grt) and above
Date	Number of vessels	Tonnage
		grt 000	dwt 000
31 March 1990	441	6,072	8,530
31 December 1979	1,305	25,232	41,221
31 December 1969	2,002	22,274	32,386
dwt = deadweight tonnage.

Mr. Evennett

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent representations he has received concerning the size of the British merchant fleet; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. McLoughlin

We receive representations from all sections of the shipping industry, including most recently NUMAST. I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Mr. Speed) by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State earlier today, announcing the setting up of a joint working party with the General Council of British Shipping.

Mr. Evennett

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what was the total number and tonnage of new merchant vessels registered in Britain in the last year for which figures are available.

Mr. McLoughlin

Figures for new registrations of British ships are provided in the table, which shows separately the vessels registered in the United Kingdom's Crown dependencies and dependent territories. The figures relate to the calendar year 1989 and to trading vessels over 500 gross registered tonnes (grt).

	Number	Tonnage 000'sgrt
United Kingdom	20	137
Crown Dependencies	10	183
Dependent Territories excluding Hong Kong	18	274
Hong Kong	33	1,039