Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many hours officials in the (a) Royal Navy, (b) Royal Fleet Auxiliary and (c) National Shipbuilding Office worked to (i) attend and (ii) support the policy agenda of the National Council of Maritime UK to date.

Maritime UK is an important institution for the maritime sector bringing together maritime industries, driving business growth and raising the UK maritime profile both at home and abroad.

Both the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (ACNS) and Commodore Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) are observer members of the National Council of Maritime UK. ACNS and an RFA officer attend the quarterly National Council Meetings and an RFA Officer joins Maritime UK for approximately 6 -10 Maritime networking events annually with ACNS in occasional attendance. In addition, the RFA have a full time Officer embedded in Maritime UK. More widely, RN and RFA officials engage regularly with Maritime UK members as part of their daily business.

The CEO and Deputy Director of the NSO have attended previous meetings of the Maritime UK National Council as invited guests to update on the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh and the work of the NSO. NSO officials engage regularly with Maritime UK members on a wide range of shipbuilding matters.

Given the wide range of engagement with Maritime UK, at both desk level and above, it is not possible to quantify this in hours.