Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the concerns of owners and operators that they will be required to substantially rebuild historic passenger vessels in order to comply with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s proposed changes to safety rules.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) conducted an initial public consultation on the proposed changes to standards for older vessels from 6 November 2018 to 29 January 2019, this consultation included a consultation stage impact assessment (IA). Consultees were invited to comment on the proposals and also 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 this feedback, in particular areas where operators have indicated that substantial alterations would be required.

As well as reflecting concerns in the IA the MCA have also revised some of the proposed changes to standards in response to feedback from the first consultation, including concerns raised with respect to substantial structural alterations being required. These revised proposals are the subject of a second public consultation which was launched on 29 May 2019 and runs until the 10 July. Owners, operators and other stakeholders are invited to comment, including raising any ongoing concerns.