§ Lord Clinton-Davisasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will state the number of United Kingdom owned and registered ships in excess of 500 tonnes gross weight in each of the 17 years up to the end of 1996.
§ Viscount GoschenThe information on United Kingdom-owned and registered ships alone was not available prior to 1986. The information that is available is as follows:
opposed to three years in Northern Ireland, although this can be waived by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in certain circumstances. Also there is no right of appeal to the courts, which there is in Northern Ireland.
Despite these differences, the Northern Ireland scheme already recognises that special relief is needed where children are involved. Where a victim is under 18 at the time of injury, there is discretion to waive the statutory time limit on making an application for compensation for up to three years after the victim's 18th birthday.
The Compensation Agency is aware of some 82 cases of child sexual abuse which fall outside the statutory time limits, but not all of these would qualify for payment if the current limits were relaxed. On the information available at this time, it is likely that around 30 might qualify for payment, the total cost of which is estimated to be in the region of £450,000. This figure does not, however, include any provision to take account of the likelihood of other cases which have not yet come to light, and which make it impossible to quantify the total cost in public expenditure terms.