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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) merchant ships, (b) fishing vessels, (c) Port State Control and (d) other vessel surveys were conducted by Maritime and Coastguard Agency surveyors based at the Marine Office in (i) Brixham, (ii) Leith, (iii) Newlyn, (iv) Tyne, (v) Plymouth, (vi) Beverley, (vii) Orpington, (viii) Harwich and (ix) Norwich in each year since 2009-10.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The table below shows the number of vessel surveys and inspections undertaken by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since

2009-10:

i)

Brixham*

ii)	Leith
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	43	44	54	48	42	25	11
Fishing Vessels	22	12	8	5	1	3	–
PSC	30	35	41	29	21	26	14
Other	31	41	63	57	46	23	5

iii)

Newlyn*

iv)	Tyne
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	181	173	173	141	163	164	104
Fishing Vessels	60	125	114	94	87	91	98
PSC	68	204	127	146	154	144	102
Other	26	20	45	37	53	46	40

v)	Plymouth*
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	243	215	223	217	205	195	148
Fishing Vessels	318	462	421	265	176	105	157
PSC	31	35	15	11	16	12	9
Other	89	112	75	60	42	40	53

vi)	Beverley/Hull
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	221	170	141	127	126	120	108
Fishing Vessels	135	171	126	182	139	141	130
PSC	227	237	254	211	299	230	146
Other	127	119	118	105	102	90	75

vii)	Orpington
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	567	504	551	628	555	564	529
Fishing Vessels	–	–	2	5	6	1	–
PSC	206	202	172	170	149	79	63
Other	86	76	56	62	52	50	35

viii)	Harwich
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	101	118	86	82	79	86	80
Fishing Vessels	52	90	39	–	5	–	2
PSC	98	111	126	79	59	78	52
Other	42	29	21	16	6	15	16

ix)	Norwich**
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	–	–	–	–	76	96	93
Fishing Vessels	–	–	–	–	22	88	96
PSC	–	–	–	–	40	36	20
Other	–	–	–	–	98	141	122

ix)	Great Yarmouth**
Surveys:	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Merchant Ships	99	95	111	97	14	–	–
Fishing Vessels	59	81	77	68	22	–	–
PSC	74	56	60	58	41	–	–
Other	105	115	99	126	31	–	–

* Newlyn and Brixham were sub-offices of Plymouth Marine Office; all work related to vessels was coordinated through Plymouth.

** Work coordinated from the Marine Office located at Great Yarmouth office moved to Norwich Marine Office on 16 May 2013.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) seafarers, (b) ship operators and (c) ship owners used each Marine Office in the UK in each year since 2009-10.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) maintain statistics regarding the number of surveys and inspections it carries out. However, the MCA does not collate statistics on how many seafarers, ship operators and ship owners visit each Marine Office, as contact is primarily through email and telephone.

Marine Surveyors at Marine Offices carry out oral examinations as part of the final stage of issuing a Certificate of Competency (COC) to seafarers. These examinations take place at either a Marine Office or at a maritime college. The attached table provides a breakdown of this activity by Marine Office by year. This is an indication of how many seafarers visit each location.

Table: Seafarer oral examinations by Marine Office by year

	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
Aberdeen	120	146	184	178	168	74	189
Belfast	208	182	209	157	173	310	383
Cardiff	213	328	188	235	239	152	347
Falmouth	87	176	181	169	123	93	202
Glasgow	672	730	763	589	614	758	709
Gr.Yarmouth/Norwich	294	259	256	318	357	356	450
Harwich	20	25	18	37	26	17	160
Hull	118	93	186	233	288	292	230
Leith	8	34	45	44	67	89	96
Liverpool	938	864	868	773	905	835	812
Newcastle/Tyne	1124	1103	1156	897	1122	1045	1238
Orpington	0	7	0	2	2	0	194
Plymouth	173	184	151	140	85	122	271
Southampton	589	634	724	712	637	682	662
Total	4564	4765	4929	4484	4806	4825	5943

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many members of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Survey and Inspection team are based at the Marine Offices in (a) Tyne, (b) Plymouth, (c) Beverley, (d) Orpington, (e) Harwich and (f) Norfolk.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The table below shows the number of members of the Survey and Inspection team which are based at each of the six Marine Offices listed.

Marine Office	Headcount
(a)	Tyne (includes Ensign Unit)	18
(b)	Plymouth	9
(c)	Beverley	16
(d)	Orpington	11
(e)	Harwich	3
(f)	Norwich (Norfolk)	5

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the projected savings accruing to the public purse are from the proposed closure of the Marine Offices in (a) Tyne and (b) Plymouth in 2017; and what the value of (i) land and (ii) buildings is on each site.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Both (a) Tyne and (b) Plymouth operate from leasehold properties ((i) land and (ii) building), as such the only value to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is the cost of the lease.

(a) Assuming that the office at Tyne closes in September 2017, the projected savings realised to the public purse in that year would be £50K. The projected annual steady state savings would be £103K.

(b) Assuming that the office at Plymouth closes in December 2017, the projected savings realised to the public purse in that year would be £12K. The projected annual steady state savings would be £50K.

Through the proposed new ways of working both Tyne and Plymouth would continue to see a surveyor presence through remote working, either within spare civil estate, such as the Marine Management Organisation or the Land Registry, or working from home depending on the operational and business need

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether it remains his policy that Learn Direct will take over the driving theory test contract from September 2016; what arrangements have been made between Learn Direct and the current contract holder to ensure a smooth handover; and what the total cost to the public purse was of the procurement process and associated fees.

Andrew Jones

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and learndirect have concluded an exit from the contract for the provision of the UK Driving Theory Test, which was due to transfer to learndirect in September 2016. Pearson Professional Assessments Ltd (formally Pearson Driving Assessments Ltd) will therefore continue to provide the service for some time.

The cost of running the procurement process was reported to have been £510,380. This covers pay costs of £350,865 and £159,515 non-pay costs, which consists primarily of professional fees.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons the gov.uk contracts finder webpage for the Driving Theory Test And Other Computer Based Testing Services contract is not updated with the latest information for that contract.

Andrew Jones

This section of the gov.uk website is shortly to be updated.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the annual cost is of running the driving theory test under his Department’s contract with Pearson Driving Assessments Ltd; and what estimate he has made of the annual cost of running that test under the contract with Learn Direct from September 2016.

Andrew Jones

The annual cost of running the Driving Theory Test under the contract with Pearson Professional Assessments Ltd (formerly Pearson Driving Assessments Ltd) in 2015/16 was £31.2 million. This cost was as a result of new contract arrangements, where net costs per test fell from September 2014 and again from September 2015. This resulted in a reduction in fees paid by car candidates from £31 to £25 in October 2014 and to £23 in October 2015.

The estimated cost of running the Driving Theory Test from September 2016 with learndirect was dependent on the future volume of tests and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency estimates that the annual cost with learndirect would have been between £38 million and £42 million.