HC Deb 02 December 1991 vol 200 cc58-9W
Ms. Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the names of Merchant Navy training establishments and the number of places in each; and if he will give details of establishments and places which have been closed since 1980.

Mr. McLoughlin

The Department of Transport is responsible for the approval of seafarer training programmes and for setting monitoring standards for the issue of certificates. It is not responsible for the provision of Merchant Navy training establishments and does not maintain records of the number of places in each; nor does it have a complete record of establishments and places which have been closed since 1980.

Ms. Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish the number of(a) officer cadets and (b) ratings who entered Merchant Navy training establish-ments for each year since 1980, including the number who commenced training and completed training for each of those years.

Mr. McLoughlin

The total numbers of officer cadets and ratings who entered Merchant Navy training establishments each year are given in the table. The number of ratings recruited is taken from the annual report of the National Sea Training college, Gravesend, which goes back to 1984.

Year Officer cadets Ratings
1980 1,274 —
1981 656 —
1982 296 —
1983 152 —
1984 183 193
1985 182 373
1986 177 217
1987 162 230
1988 227 240
1989 413 229
1990 521 212

For officer cadets there is a wastage factor of 25 per cent. over the period of training, but for ratings the wastage factor has been just over 5 per cent. for the considerably shorter training periods.

Ms. Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give the yearly cost to his Department of the Government scheme of assistance for training for the Merchant Navy since its introduction.

Mr. McLoughlin

The Merchant Shipping Act 1988 makes provision for building on existing training arrangements and the Department of Transport is providing financial assistance for training for the Merchant Navy. The yearly cost to this Department since the scheme was introduced in 1988 is as follows:

Financial year Cost £
1988–89 843,844
1989–90 1,757,518
1990–91 2,341,540