Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 April 2016 to Question 33976, what assessment his Department has made of the potential change to (a) benefits and (b) risks to the status of the UK Ship Register within the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Work is in progress by the department to explore whether changing the status of the UK Ship Register would help ensure its future competitiveness. The work is in its early stages, but will assess both the benefits and risks of the available options.