Ship Safety, Marine Pollution And The Donaldson Inquiry

EDM number 98 in 1994-95, proposed by Joan Walley on 23/11/1994.

That this House notes with great concern that as much as 60,000 tonnes of oil enters the North Sea each year through accidental or illegal discharges from shipping; welcomes the Report of the Donaldson Inquiry, Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas, commissioned after the grounding of the MV 'Braer' in 1993, which advises urgent action and sets out 103 recommendations needed for the improvement of ship safety as well as the prevention and control of pollution from shipping; welcomes the efforts of the Department of Transport in publishing monthly lists of ships detained in United Kingdom ports after failing inspections and in presenting to the International Maritime Organisation, a proposal for the use of transponders to monitor ship movements; welcomes the United Kingdom Chamber of Shipping's Interim Voluntary Code of Practice on Routeing, subsequently adopted by the International Maritime Organisation, as a first step to ensure that ecologically sensitive areas are not placed at risk from shipping accidents; calls upon Her Majesty's Government to introduce appropriate legislation in the current parliamentary session and to implement relevant recommendations of the Donaldson Report and to lead the support for the implementation of the remaining recommendations through global action; and urges Her Majesty's Government to take the lead in ensuring that the declaration signed at the Fourth North Sea Ministerial Conference in June 1995, which will be applicable to all United Kingdom waters, proposes targets and deadlines for achieving the elimination of intentional discharges of oily waste from shipping.

This motion has been signed by a total of 110 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.