Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what parts of the Government’s plan for recognition of seafarer certificates of competency in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal have been implemented.

The Government has taken forward the actions identified in the notice on seafarer certificates published in September 2018. We have introduced the Merchant Shipping (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The regulations correct deficiencies in domestic legislation that would otherwise have existed as a result of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. This enables continued recognition of seafarer qualifications from EU and EEA countries.

Before the original date of 29 March for UK’s departure from the EU, the Government lobbied Member States to initiate the process of recognising UK certificates following the well-established EU process for recognising certificates from third countries.