§ Ms. WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what advice he has been given and what research has been carried out or commissioned by his Department on the safety implications for dry cargo ships of(a) fitting ships with structural monitoring systems, (b) the speed with which ships are loaded and (c) other technical and staffing considerations relating to safety; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. McLoughlinMy Department has jointly funded with "Lloyd's Register of Shipping" the developments of the "black box" voyage data recorder. This equipment is presently being evaluated at sea. It embodies, among other things, features designed to monitor stress levels at critical locations of a vessel's structure. Stress levels may be monitored with this equipment during loading and unloading operations, and in addition recorded for analysis at a later date.
Research commissioned by the Department into the "Technology and Manning for Safe Ship Operations" in 1986 formed the reference work for a strategic policy committee, under the Merchant Navy Training Board, to develop a modular structure of qualifications based on standards to perform separate shipboard functions. These new initiatives on training and future manning models are referred to in "British Shipping: Challenges and Opportunities", which suggests a target date for their implementation of September 1992.