Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the validity of the negotiating position of seafarer representatives ahead of the meeting of the Joint Maritime Commission's Subcommittee on Wages of Seafarers at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva on 20 to 21 June 2018.

The Joint Maritime Commission’s Subcommittee on Wages of Seafarers is a bipartite meeting between representatives of the seafarers and the shipowners. Government representatives do not normally attend or take part and the composition of the sub-Committee should not be influenced by Governments.

The participants who attend are a matter only for the seafarers and the shipowners groups respectively and those who attend the sub-Committee will be recognised as being representative of their sector by the social partners and the ILO.