§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make it his policy to refuse access to UK waters of single hull oil tankers; and if he will make a statement. [28045]
§ Mr. SpellarThe rights of innocent or transit passage, as provided in the United Nations convention on the law of the sea, benefit UK ships in foreign territorial waters and prevent the UK from refusing access through UK territorial waters to single hull oil tankers. However, it was recently agreed that after 2007 the oldest (unprotected) type of single hull tankers will not be allowed to operate anywhere; and the UK will not permit newer single hull tankers, fitted with partial protection, to enter its ports after 2015, exercising a new right which that agreement has given.