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Dept for Transport

Answer

Mr. Carmichael: To 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. Jamieson: P&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 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.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

60164; 386 c762-3W

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Ferries Standards Safety Shipping Roll-on roll-off ships P&O Ferries Stena Line MV Canterbury

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk