Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Table SFR0303 of his Department's statistical release, Seafarers in the UK Shipping Industry: 2017, published on 30 May 2018, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of seafarer Ratings of unknown nationality from 2015 to 2017.

The statistics in table SFR0303 are derived from information collected from members of the UK Chamber of Shipping via an annual manpower survey. The number of seafarers whose nationality is unknown will fluctuate depending on the completeness of the data returned by those responding to this survey.