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.

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.