Published on: 03 February 2022
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has released a new public consultation on an amendment to update MSN 1747(M) which sets out boundaries of sea areas around the UK coast.
This consultation seeks comments on a draft updated Merchant Shipping Notice (MSN) 1747(M) which designates waters which are considered by the UK to be Sea Areas C and D around the UK.
The original designation of Sea Areas (then referred to as ‘EU Sea Areas’) shown in MSN 1747(M) was carried out using the Meteorological Office data available at the time. Since then, a Meteorological Report was published in 2011 in which the data has been updated and shows sea state data in a more granular way. As a result of this, it may be possible to re-categorise areas of water based on new data. One specific area of water has been identified for review, but consultees are invited to suggest any others for which they consider a review is appropriate based on the Met Office Report.
Additionally, it is proposed to update the MSN with consequential amendments, the main ones of which is to revise definitions of Sea Areas C and D, brought about by amendments to Directive 2009/45/EC by Directive 2017/2108/EU which were implemented by the Merchant Shipping (Safety Standards for Passenger Ships on Domestic Voyages) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1222);
The consultation period will run for five weeks from 27 January to 3 March 2022.
Consultation responses should be filled in the provided form via annex A of the consultation and either returned to dpv@mcga.gov.uk or alternatively responses can be returned via the British Marine Technical team via technical@britishmarine.co.uk.
The full consultation and all its supporting documents can be found via Consultation to update MSN 1747(M) with MSN 1747(M) Amendment 1 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
