§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what action the Department will take in relation to the OECD's Maritime Transport Committee's proposals to eradicate substandard shipping. [60162]
§ Mr. JamiesonI welcome the OECD Maritime Transport Committee's (MTC) policy statement on substandard shipping. The MTC plays an important role in supporting the efforts of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and others to eliminate substandard shipping. The policy statement is also a welcome contribution to the International Quality Shipping Campaign, in which the UK plays a leading role. That campaign sets out to eradicate substandard ships through a combination of market action and state action. The UK and like minded flag states will pursue in the IMO the proposals in MTC's policy statement.
§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the length of time taken by the Maritime Coastguard Agency in approving stability information on the ferry P&OSL Canterbury. [60164]
§ Mr. JamiesonP&OSL Canterbury joined the UK shipping register in the summer of 1998. Her stability information booklet (SIB) had been approved in 1992 by the French classification society Bureau Veritas (BV) on behalf of her previous flag administration, the Bahamas. As BV are a classification society authorised by the UK, and the Bahamas is a reputable flag, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) followed established procedures and accepted the stability information on the basis of the previous approvals, and without any further detail checks, by marking the document "provisionally approved".
At no time has the vessel not had approved stability information complying with international standards.
The vessel was preparing for a programme of model testing to demonstrate compliance with the "Stockholm Agreement" standards for stability with the car deck flooded, and a routine displacement check was carried out in November 2000. A number of amendments to the SIB 763W were eventually required and the owner's consultant submitted a "SIB Addendum" on 8 November 2001 which was approved on 16 November, within the MCA's charter standard time for document approval.
§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 21 May 2002,Official Report, column 149, how many of the merchant ships which have joined the UK shipping register have met the target of increasing UK cadet numbers by 25 per cent. each year. [60250]
§ Mr. JamiesonWe are collecting information from individual companies that have joined the tonnage tax regime on the action they have taken to ensure they meet their 1:15 training commitment.
§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will review the regulations governing ship classification societies regarding the inspection and certification of oil tankers entering British territorial waters. [60582]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe Maritime and Coastguard Agency as the administration for United Kingdom registered ships, monitors classification society performance where statutory surveys are concerned and, in their role as port state control inspectors, ensures that oil tankers entering United Kingdom territorial waters comply with international regulations.
Annex I of MARPOL 73/78 which details Regulations for the Prevention of Pollution by Oil, is transposed into UK legislation by the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 1996. In September 2002, the UK will be implementing substantial amendments to these regulations which will include the establishment of a schedule accelerating the phase out of single hull tankers. They will also detail a rigorous new quality test to be applied by classification societies, known as the condition assessment scheme, applicable to single hull oil tankers of 20,000 deadweight tonnes and above.
§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many groundings of boats in Scottish waters have been attributed to the watchkeeper falling asleep in(a) 1995, (b) 1996, (c) 1997, (d) 1998, (e) 1999, (f) 2000, (g) 2001 and (h) 2002 to date. [60182]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe information is as follows:
Total Fishing vessels Merchant vessels Deaths Vessel lost 1995 6 5 1 1 2 1996 6 5 1 1 1 1997 4 4 — — 1 1998 2 — 2 — — 1999 4 4 1 — — 2000 2 2 — — 1 2001 4 4 — — 1 20021 1 1 — — — Total 29 24 5 2 6 1 To date
§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment has been made of trends in the number of lives lost at sea in UK waters. [60163]
764W
§ Mr. JamiesonThe trends for the number of lives lost in UK waters remain static when compared to incident numbers. However, even one death is too many. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency are, therefore, currently undertaking incident prevention pilot studies in each of their three regions in order to assist in the formulation of a long-term incident prevention strategy. This strategy will address ways of reducing accidents, deaths resulting from accidents, false alarms and hoax calls.
§ Mr. CarmichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many lives have been lost at sea in UK waters in each year since 1990. [60161]
§ Mr. JamiesonA breakdown of the number of lives lost in UK waters for each year 1990 to 2001 is as follows.
Lives lost 1990 295 1991 201 1992 210 1993 262 1994 272 1995 232 1996 216 1997 251 1998 249 1999 251 2000 236 2001 284