Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact that the costs of complying with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s proposed changes to the safety rules for historic passenger vessels will have on the financial viability of operators of such vessels.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) are preparing a full Impact Assessment (IA) to determine the anticipated costs and impacts of compliance with the proposed changes to the standards for older passenger vessels.

An earlier version of the IA was consulted on during a public consultation which ran from 6 November 2018 to 29 January 2019. Consultees were invited to comment on the validity of the analysis in the IA and encouraged to provide information that would help to strengthen this. The IA is now being updated to reflect the range of further information provided through consultee feedback.

The IA process is ongoing and policy officials in the MCA are happy to discuss impacts with any interested parties and take onboard relevant evidence for the assessment.