Shipping: Pollution Control

(asked on 23rd March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the prevalence of bilge dumping in UK waters, and (2) the adequacy of measures to prevent, identify and punish the practice.


Answered by
Baroness Vere of Norbiton Portrait
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 31st March 2022

The discharge of bilge water from ships is governed by internationally agreed regulations which are implemented and enforced in the UK by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The UK regulations prohibit the discharge of bilge water unless specific control measures are met. These regulations were updated in 2019 and have provisions built into the regulations to enable the efficient implementation of new international standards to ensure that UK regulations remain current and effective. Compliance is monitored by various means, which include, satellite surveillance, manned aircraft surveillance and reconnaissance of UK waters and the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), port state control inspections and the mandatory regulatory requirements for ships to report pollution incidents. If there is evidence of a breach of the regulations, the MCA can use a variety of enforcement action up to and including detention of the ship and prosecution of the owner/operator.

All incidences of pollution must be reported and, where appropriate, feasible reports are investigated via a variety of means by the MCA. Records reflect that there has been no evidence of illegal bilge dumping in UK Waters or the UK EEZ. Potential illegal discharges recorded have all occurred within Harbour Authority jurisdiction; all have been minor and caused by accident rather than by any deliberate act to pollute. The impact of these incidents has been negligible and quickly resolved, with sanction and/or enforcement action to the responsibility of the Statutory Harbour Authority. The MCA’s Regulatory Compliance and Investigations Team has never had the need to undertake prosecution action for such situations.

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