§ Mr. Andrew GeorgeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the possible correlation between the age of fishing vessels and accidents involving fire, explosion, foundering and loss of life for(a) over 12 metre and (b) under 12 metre vessels. [124485]
§ Mr. HillThe Marine Accidents Investigation Branch (MAIB) has examined all reported accidents to UK fishing vessels, irrespective of length, involving fires and explosions, and floodings and founderings from 1992 to September 1999. No examination has been made of the correlation between the age of fishing vessels and the fatal accidents.
The MAIB's figures show that the accident rate for floodings and founderings, for under 12 metre vessels up to 10 years old, and for over 12 metre vessels up to 211W 20 years old, is unremarkable but deteriorates thereafter. For all vessels more than 40 years old, the rate improves. For fires and explosions the correlation is similar to floodings and founderings for vessels over 12 metre vessels, but there is no meaningful correlation for under 12 metre vessels as the number reported to the MAIB is small.
The MAIB concludes generally that the accident rate increases for all vessels in the 20 to 40 bracket largely because maintenance does not reach the level required to prevent these types of accidents. However, the rate improves for vessels more than 40 years old because the worse performing vessels have been removed from the fleet, and the remainder have been extensively refurbished.