§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list, by defect found, the number of vessels found to have a defect during the last 12 months at inspections undertaken by the Marine Safety Agency. [36708]
§ Mr. NorrisThis is an operational matter for the Marine Safety Agency. The hon. Member has already received a reply from the chief executive and I attach a copy.
Letter from R. M. Bradley to Ms Joan Walley
Thank you for your letter of 1 August requesting details of inspections carried out on ro-ro passenger ferries on Dover and on merchant ships in the UK in general.With regard to your first query, relating to inspections carried out on ro-ro passenger ferries in Dover, I would refer you to the answer given by Mr Norris to PQ 1479 and 1467, which can be found in Hansard volume 258 columns 614 to 615.Moving on to your second query, relating to inspections carried out by the Marine Safety Agency throughout the country over the last 12 months, a list showing the result of all such inspections by deficiency cannot be provided except at disproportionate cost. However, the United Kingdom carries out its port state control inspections in co-operation with members of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MOU). The results of each inspection carried out in the MOU are recorded on a central database and statistical information is published annually by the Secretariat of the Paris MOU. The number of ships, by deficiency, inspected in the region covered by the Paris MOU can be found in The Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control Annual Report 1994, a copy of which has been placed in the House of Commons' library.