Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the workbook code for maritime autonomy certification in allowing autonomous vessels to be developed at speed for military use.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Workboat Code has been effectively utilised by defence projects as a baseline safety standard to ensure that the UK MOD is aligned to wider UK maritime safety. However, the legislation governing the Code is not applicable to MOD vessels, allowing the use of the code as non-binding guidance to demonstrate compliance with Defence Maritime Regulations. The MOD has certified both crewed and autonomous vessels using the workboat code as the baseline standard