Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the progress the Merchant Navy Training Board has made in promoting the training of (a) ratings and (b) cadets since 2015 to date.

The Department does not assess the Merchant Navy Training Board’s progress in promoting ratings and cadet training.

Officials from the Department for Transport and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency sit on the Merchant Navy Training Board with observer status. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency are there primarily as a regulator of standards against the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978.