Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the specified requirements are for supply boats working in the offshore renewables sector when licences are approved.

There is no direct connection between the licensing of offshore renewables projects and the standards for living and working conditions applying to supply boats working in the sector. The standards for living and working conditions for seafarers on all merchant ships is the International Labour Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (“the MLC”). The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency has the powers to enforce the standards of the MLC on all UK flagged ships and all other merchant ships calling in UK ports or operating in UK territorial waters.