Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether emergency planning is in hand in the event of an uninsured tanker leaking oil in British waters.

Regardless of the insurance status of a vessel, the UK has well-established plans/protocols for the response to an oil spill. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is the National Competent Authority for at-sea pollution response. MCA Counter Pollution and Salvage (CPS), under the direction of HM Coastguard, are custodians of the national pollution response resources which comprise specialist oil containment and recovery equipment and dispersant. These are supported by manned aircraft for spill surveillance, verification and quantification and aerial dispersant spraying capability. Personnel and resources are in place 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year and provide an incident management and response capability anywhere within the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Regular exercises are undertaken to test national multi-agency spill response procedures.

Whilst shoreline pollution response is led by local authorities and devolved nations, MCA CPS will support pollution response along the UK shoreline using nationally held containment and recovery capability held in the stockpiles.

Incident management, specialist response teams, and liaison personnel are also available and will be activated by the MCA as required. As with at-sea pollution response, regular engagement with local authorities in response exercises is undertaken. The resources held by the MCA are commensurate with a Tier 3 national response requirement as described within the National Contingency Plan for Pollution from Shipping and Offshore Installations.