Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what function the National Maritime Intelligence Organisation's Vessels of Interest (VOI) list performs in alerting ports to ships with potential cases of Ebola onboard; and how many ships have been listed on the VOI list in the last two months because of possible Ebola cases.

The National Maritime Information Centre (NMIC) is reporting to interested government departments the movement and expected arrival information of vessels that have been in ports or anchorages in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone within the Ebola incubation period (21 days). This information is made available to the ports and shipping communities, including port health authorities.

There are six ships on the current Vessels of Interest (VoI) list which have, within the last 21 days, visited ports in the three countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. A total of 67 VoIs has been identified in the last two months. Most of these vessels have not called at a UK port but were rather travelling to neighbouring countries. Of these vessels, none have been identified as having any symptoms of Ebola like virus on board.