Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many ships the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has detained following an inspection conducted in line with the MCA's port state control responsibilities in each of the last five years; and what the (a) reasons for detention and (b) flag registry were in each such case.
Answered by John Hayes
The attached table shows the International Maritime Organization (IMO) number and flag of each ship, in every year between 2009 and 2013, which has been detained in UK ports following a port state control inspection by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
There are many reasons why a ship can be detained. Details about the detentions for each ship can be found at:
https://www.parismou.org/inspection-search
and searching using the ship’s IMO Number.
In the case of a detention, the Port State Control inspector has found serious deficiencies which demonstrate that the ship does not comply substantially with the applicable requirements of the relevant International Conventions for the ship. These serious deficiencies are considered to affect the safety of the ship, or the crew or the environment or the living and working conditions on board such that the inspector has to return to the ship to verify that all the deficiencies have been rectified before departure of the ship from the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving licence (a) applications and (b) renewals the DVLA has received in each of the last five years.
Answered by Claire Perry
The number of driving licence applications and applications to renew a licence received at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in the last five years is set out in the table below:
Year | Total number of all driving licence applications received including applications to renew a driving licence | Total number of applications received to renew a driving licence | |||||
2009-10 | 8,794,140 | 3,164,424 | |||||
2010-11 | 9,716,576 | 4,113,264 | |||||
2011-12 | 9,834,914 | 4,272,278 | |||||
2012-13 | 9,769,331 | 4,271.609 | |||||
2013-14 | 10,233,837 | 4,315,268 | |||||
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the current target timeframe is for processing of driving licence (a) applications and (b) renewals; and whether the same timeframe applies in the case of licences that have a medical test as part of the application.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s (DVLA) targets for processing driving licence applications are to deliver:
- 98% of first provisional driving licences within eight working days;
- 98% of vocational driving licences within eight working days; and
- 98% of all other driving licence applications, including renewal applications within 10 working days
Where a driving licence application requires medical investigations, the target is to conclude 90% of all cases and make a licensing decision within 90 working days |
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving licence (a) applications and (b) renewals breached the target timeframe for processing in each of the last five years; and in how many such cases the breach arose as a result of delays in medical assessments.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) does not hold separate figures for applications for a driving licence and renewal applications which missed the target for processing. However, the total number of driving licence applications where the target time for processing has been breached is shown in the table below:
Year | Total number of all driving licence applications received including applications to renew a driving licence | Total number of applications for a driving licence, including applications to renew a licence, where the target was missed | Total number of applications for a driving licence, including applications to renew a licence, where the target was missed due to medical investigations |
2009-2010 | 8,794,140 | 184,398 | 48,146 |
2010-2011 | 9,716,576 | 318,982 | 58,825 |
2011-2012 | 9,834,914 | 98,086 | 57,552 |
2012-2013 | 9,769,331 | 194,751 | 77,764 |
2013-2014 | 10,233,837 | 241,437 | 63,963 |
The number of applications and renewal applications where the target was missed due to medical investigations also includes cases where the DVLA has been notified of a medical condition which requires further investigation. However, these notifications were not necessarily associated with an application for a driving licence or an application to renew a licence.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the current level of compliance is with the Merchant Shipping (Emergency Equipment Lockers for Ro/Ro Passenger Ships) Regulations 1988 amongst ship owners operating licensed passenger ferry services from UK ports; what the penalties are for non-compliance; and if he will publish a list of all instances of non-compliance with these regulations recorded by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency since 1988.
Answered by John Hayes
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) does not record the information in the format requested.
The MCA does record non-compliance, or deficiencies, of items for which there are specific codes, for example emergency lighting. The Emergency Equipment Lockers do not have a specific code, and items similar to those kept in the Emergency Equipment Locker may be located in other parts of the ship. These may need to be recorded as non-compliant although, the records do not indicate whether such deficiencies relate to equipment in one of the Emergency Equipment Lockers or elsewhere in the ship.
The penalties for non-compliance are ‘ the owner and master of the ship shall each be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine or both.’ Level 5 is currently set at £5,000.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) annual budget was for promoting the UK Shipping Register internationally to encourage ship owners to register their ships in the UK in each year since 2009-10; and what the MCA's budget is for such work in 2015-16.
Answered by John Hayes
The table below shows the overseas visits made by officials from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to promote the UK Shipping Register (UKSR) to ship owners since 2009-10. It also shows the cost per year for these trips and the MCA’s planned expenditure for promoting the UKSR.
The expenditure in 2013 -14 was higher than originally planned because of the decision to raise the profile of the UKSR in international markets, in particular China and the Far East. This included attendance by UKSR officials at shipping industry and ship building trade shows, and also official receptions for shipping industry leaders at UK missions overseas.
Ministers attended the events in Athens in June 2012 and 2013, and Singapore in February 2014 with the MCA. Those attendances were part of a wider programme of events involving shipping and transport in general. Costing the element involved in the promotion of the UK Shipping register is not possible.
2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | |
April
| Thailand and Germany | Singapore and India | |||
May
| Oslo | Vietnam | |||
June
| Oslo | Athens | Germany | Athens | Oslo and Athens |
July
| |||||
August
| Germany | ||||
September
| Germany | Germany | Germany | ||
October
| India | ||||
November | Rotterdam | Shanghai | Athens and Singapore | ||
December
| Shanghai | Hong Kong | Shanghai | ||
January
| |||||
February | Tokyo and Copenhagen | Singapore and Germany | |||
March
| Germany | ||||
PLANNED EXPENDITURE
| £44,500 | £32,400 | £25,000 | £21,739 | £19,284 |
TOTAL SPEND
| £16,048.57 | £5,082.48 | £26,040.48 | £19,083.68 | £40,272.52 |
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many officials from the UK Chamber of Shipping have been seconded to work in his Department since May 2010; and in what areas of maritime policy each such member of staff has been so employed.
Answered by Claire Perry
No officials from the UK Chamber of Shipping have been seconded to work in the Department for Transport since May 2010. The Department works very closely with the UK Chamber on many key aspects of maritime policy, and discussions with them are on an ongoing basis. The Department is also keen to increase secondment opportunities more generally with transport industries, both encouraging incoming secondees to the Department, and outward secondments for staff.
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many overseas visit trips (a) Ministers, (b) officials in his Department and (c) officials from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have undertaken in each year since 2009-10 to promote the UK Shipping Register to ship owners; and what the (i) destination and (ii) cost was of each such trip.
Answered by John Hayes
The table below shows the overseas visits made by officials from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to promote the UK Shipping Register (UKSR) to ship owners since 2009-10. It also shows the cost per year for these trips and the MCA’s planned expenditure for promoting the UKSR.
The expenditure in 2013 -14 was higher than originally planned because of the decision to raise the profile of the UKSR in international markets, in particular China and the Far East. This included attendance by UKSR officials at shipping industry and ship building trade shows, and also official receptions for shipping industry leaders at UK missions overseas.
Ministers attended the events in Athens in June 2012 and 2013, and Singapore in February 2014 with the MCA. Those attendances were part of a wider programme of events involving shipping and transport in general. Costing the element involved in the promotion of the UK Shipping register is not possible.
2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | |
April
| Thailand and Germany | Singapore and India | |||
May
| Oslo | Vietnam | |||
June
| Oslo | Athens | Germany | Athens | Oslo and Athens |
July
| |||||
August
| Germany | ||||
September
| Germany | Germany | Germany | ||
October
| India | ||||
November | Rotterdam | Shanghai | Athens and Singapore | ||
December
| Shanghai | Hong Kong | Shanghai | ||
January
| |||||
February | Tokyo and Copenhagen | Singapore and Germany | |||
March
| Germany | ||||
PLANNED EXPENDITURE
| £44,500 | £32,400 | £25,000 | £21,739 | £19,284 |
TOTAL SPEND
| £16,048.57 | £5,082.48 | £26,040.48 | £19,083.68 | £40,272.52 |
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the current level of compliance is with the (a) Merchant Shipping (Weighing of Goods Vehicles and other Cargo) Regulations 1988, (b) Merchant Shipping (Weighing of Goods Vehicles and other Cargo) (Amendment) Regulations 1989 and (c) Merchant Shipping (Weighing of Goods Vehicles and other Cargo) (Application to non-UK Ships) Regulations 1989 at each UK port licensed to operate passenger ferry services.
Answered by John Hayes
Shipping companies are required to have in place procedures for ensuring that the weighed weights of trucks are used for stability calculations, and these procedures are documented in the ships Safety Management System which is audited regularly by surveyors of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). MCA surveyors inspect car ferries in operation, and part of the checks confirm that the ships' masters are correctly using the weight information supplied by weighbridges.
As a result of these proactive audit process the MCA does not routinely collect information on compliance with the Merchant Shipping (Weighing of Goods Vehicles and other Cargo) Regulations 1988 (as amended).
Asked by: Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) domestic and (b) European regulations are deemed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to have superseded the Merchant Shipping (Emergency Equipment Lockers for Ro/Ro Passenger Ships) Regulations 1988.
Answered by John Hayes
No domestic or European regulations have specifically superseded the Merchant Shipping (Emergency Equipment Lockers for Ro/Ro Passenger Ships) Regulations 1988.
Levels of safety on ships now are higher than they were in 1988 because of the introduction of a number of regulations since then. These include the International Safety Management Code - an international standard for the safe management and operation of ships; SOLAS 90 - an international standard for passenger ship stability; and the Stockholm agreement – an international agreement on stability requirements for Ro/Ro Passenger ships.
In addition there have been improvements in the requirements for training of ships’ officers and crew - The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.