Merchant Shipping (Marine Equipment) Regulations 2025

Considered in Grand Committee

Moved by

That the Grand Committee do consider the Merchant Shipping (Marine Equipment) Regulations 2025.

My Lords, the purpose of these regulations is to simplify marine equipment legislation by consolidating and combining regulatory changes into one piece of legislation, providing greater clarity for industry. The regulations also bring the standards and requirements for ballast water management systems within scope, introduce a new “equivalents” provision and remove government ships from the scope of the legislative regime. Noble Lords will wish to know that the draft regulations have been scrutinised by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee; no response has been received from either committee.

In line with international requirements for ships to carry safety and counterpollution equipment—collectively referred to as “marine equipment”—that has been approved by the ship’s flag administration, the UK implemented the Merchant Shipping (Marine Equipment) Regulations 2016, which gave effect to the EU directive on marine equipment. Following the UK’s exit from the European Union, the 2016 regulations were amended in 2019 to ensure that they would continue to operate effectively. Amendments were also made by the Merchant Shipping (Marine Equipment) (Amendment) (UK and US Mutual Recognition Agreement) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, which gave effect to the UK-US mutual recognition agreement on marine equipment by providing for the mutual recognition of certificates of conformity for designated marine equipment, thus opening up the large US market to UK manufacturers.

These proposed regulations will revoke and replace the 2016 regulations and both sets of 2019 amending regulations. The proposed regulations, which are considered non-controversial, set out the United Kingdom conformity assessment system for marine equipment placed on ships registered in the United Kingdom.

My Lords, as has been set out, this instrument aims to simplify marine equipment regulations and provide clarity for industry. I am grateful for the briefing from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency earlier this week. Conventions require ships to carry safety equipment and counter-pollution equipment, which will meet certain standards. As we have heard, through the 2016 regulations, which were amended in 2019 following our exit from the EU, this SI will consolidate those regulations into a single instrument, which we support. They also concern the removal of government ships—that was clarified to me earlier this week—which are covered by defence maritime regulations.

However, I will raise the process and the time taken to get to what we are considering today. Having read the comments of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee regarding the related Merchant Shipping (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, which I am sure will be before the House soon, the timing of these regulations—on which the committee did not comment specifically—needs further explanation. Can the Minister confirm when the consultation on today’s regulations took place? Why have these two sets of regulations not come at the same time, given that they are both about consolidation and review? When can we expect the replacement fees regulations to be introduced?

Given that we were here only last week looking at the instrument on railway car parks, which seemed to take an awfully long time to get here—over five years had passed since the consultation on the matter—and the regulations before us today were last updated some six years ago, what assurance can the Minister provide that the department will start to work at pace through a lot of the administration around these regulations, to ensure more timely consideration by this Committee? I await the Minister’s response with interest.

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for arranging a briefing for me by members of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Department for Transport, which was extremely helpful. The issues underlying this wholly uncontroversial instrument were debated in the other place, and the official Conservative view in support of the instrument was made clear there. It is very rare that one has the opportunity with any Government, least of all this one, to be able to say, “Well done. Carry on”, but that is my message.

I am not going to say I am stunned, because the noble Lord is wholly reasonable. It is a pleasure to hear his words.

I should just say in response to the noble Baroness that the consultation took place in the first half of 2025. They are not together, because self-evidently they are not together, but the fees regulations will come within 12 to 18 months. All I can say is that a huge amount of work is going on in my department in respect of both maritime legislation, a lot of which is in statutory instruments as we have discussed, and aircraft safety, because both are related to international conventions, to get over the large volume of work created by the withdrawal from the European Union. She can be assured that work is going on at pace.

It is evident that the results of the consultation, which were wholly positive in this respect, are very helpful. I would be much more worried not by its speed but if the consequence was that the maritime industry felt short-changed or uncomfortable with what is being proposed. It is pretty clear that it is not.

I think I have answered all the points that were raised. I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, for his absolute support, as I am to the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, for hers. It is vital to ensure that all UK-flagged ships carry safe marine equipment that has been approved by the flag state. Consolidating the 2016 regulations and amending regulations into a single instrument will provide clarity for stakeholders. I am very pleased that both noble Lords got such a comprehensive briefing from the maritime agency. Therefore, I hope they will agree that the objective of these regulations, which is to simplify marine equipment regulations while maintaining high safety and environmental protection standards for UK ships, is desirable. I commend this instrument to the Committee.

Motion agreed.

Committee adjourned at 5.17 pm.