Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) costs to the public purse of and (b) delivery date for the domestic equivalents to European Maritime Safety Agency information systems which the Maritime and Coastguard Agency currently uses to carry out its regulatory responsibilities.

The government is confident that we can agree a deep and special partnership with the EU. However, a responsible government should prepare for all potential outcomes, including the unlikely scenario in which no mutually satisfactory agreement can be reached.

The Department has worked closely with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to understand the risks we may be exposed to under a “no deal” scenario. We have also considered the cost and resource requirements associated with mitigating these risks, including cost and resource requirements associated with delivering domestic equivalents to EMSA’s systems.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is now working to deliver these domestic equivalent systems and we are confident these can be in place by exit day.