HC Deb 23 February 1999 vol 326 cc207-8W
Dr. David Clark

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is the tonnage of UK (i) owned and (ii) registered vessels in the maritime industry; and in each case what the figure was(a) 10 years and (b) 20 years ago. [72074]

Dr. Reid

Information on a consistent basis is not available prior to end-1986 because vessels registered in the UK cannot be distinguished from those registered in the Crown Dependencies (Isle of Man and Channel Islands). The information that is available is as follows:

Tonnage of UK-owned and UK-registered vessels1
000 deadweight tonnes
UK-owned vessels UK-registered vessels
Trading vessels All vessels Trading vessels All vessels
31 December 1986 18,609 n/a 10,458 11,952
31 December 1988 16,593 18,145 5,709 7,072
31 December 1998 9,761 11,577 2,699 4,150
1 All vessels 100 gross tonnes and above

Source:

Lloyd's Maritime Information Services Ltd.

Dr. David Clark

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many UK(a) officers and (b) ratings are currently employed in the maritime industry; and how many there were (i) 10 years and (ii) 20 years ago. [72073]

Dr. Reid

There is no consistent series of UK nationals employed in the maritime industry. The Chamber of Shipping collects data on employment on vessels operated by its members, and this is shown for selected years in the table. It is known that many UK nationals, especially officers, work on non-member vessels, but precise figures for earlier years are not known.

UK officers and ratings on vessels entered with the Chamber of Shipping
Year Officers Ratings
1978 32,188 25,570
1986 10,871 12,706
1988 8,885 12,114
1995 7,724 8,721
19971 6,186 7,929
1Forecast

Note:

Years refer to 31 December, except 1978 which is 31 September. From 1991 statistics of crew serving as back-up for non-UK flag vessels were specifically included.

Source:

Chamber of Shipping Fleet and Manpower Inquiry.