Every UK seafarer holding a PSSR certificate, Certificate of Competency, or Certificate of Proficiency dated before 1 January 2026 now has until 31 March 2027 to complete mandatory training on harassment, bullying and violence at sea, or they will not be able to renew their ticket. Deck, engineering, interior: everyone is covered, officers through their CoC, ratings through a CoP, and interior crew through the PSSR certificate itself. The word “guidance” in the title does not mean this is optional. Follow MCA guidance and you are treated in law as having met best practice.
In This Guide, You’ll Learn
- What MGN 718 actually requires, and who it covers
- Why “guidance” does not mean you have a choice
- What happens to your certificate if you miss 31 March 2027
- What training alone will not fix, and what will
What Is MGN 718 and Who Does It Cover?
The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) handles day-to-day shipping decisions in the UK, operating under the legal authority of the Department for Transport. The MCA communicates through two main instruments. A Maritime Information Notice (MIN) tells you how existing rules are being interpreted. A Maritime Guidance Notice (MGN) tells you what to do.
It carries the designation M plus F, which means it applies to SOLAS class shipping and fishing vessels alike. In practice, that means every UK certificate holder is covered, regardless of vessel type. A superyacht deckhand, a cruise liner officer and a fishing vessel skipper all sit under the same requirement. The training covers harassment, bullying and violence at sea, delivered as part of the five-yearly basic survival training refresher every certificate holder must complete to keep their ticket current.
Globally, this training sits inside PSSR (Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities), a course already required under STCW, the international convention that sets seafarer training standards. The global PSSR requirement only applies to seafarers obtaining a new certificate of competency from 1 January 2026 onward. The UK has gone further.
Why Does “Guidance” Mean You Have to Comply?
In UK maritime law, the word guidance carries real legal weight, even though it sounds like a suggestion. If you follow MCA guidance, you are automatically assumed to have followed best and proper practice. If you do not follow it, you are assumed not to have, and the onus falls on you to demonstrate otherwise. MGN 718 has also attached a hard deadline: 31 March 2027. Past that date, the guidance functions exactly like a rule.
Who Exactly Needs to Complete This Before 31 March 2027?
The requirement follows the certificate holder, not the vessel. This detail trips up most crew and management companies.
Take a Cayman Islands-flagged superyacht arriving in Southampton with twelve crew on board, of whom three hold UK certificates of competency. MGN 718 captures only those three in this instance. The other nine, holding Australian, New Zealand or American tickets, are not currently affected unless their own flag state issues an equivalent requirement. Port state control in the UK can ask UK certificate holders for evidence of completion. Port state control in France cannot, because France is enforcing a different rule set entirely. The mandate sits with the person and their certificate, not with the ship’s registry.
An additional layer to this is that the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency holds memoranda of understanding with the Red Ensign Group, a collection of flag states including the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and the Cayman Islands that, between them, register roughly double the UK’s own tonnage. These flags often adopt MCA guidance directly, republishing it under their own header. It would not be surprising if the Cayman Islands and Isle of Man, the two most significant Red Ensign flags for superyachts, adopt an equivalent requirement of their own. If that happens, the certificate holder basis stops mattering and the requirement becomes close to universal across the fleet.
What Happens If You Do Not Complete the Training?
MGN 718 carries no criminal sanction. The consequence is simpler; any UK certificate holder inspected by UK authorities after 31 March 2027 without evidence of completion will be told they cannot sail. Any UK certificate holder applying to renew their ticket after that date without having completed the training will find their certificate has expired. The financial penalty is loss of income and loss of employment, which for most seafarers carries more weight than a fine ever would.
What This Training Can Do, and What It Can’t
Sexual harassment is already a criminal offence in most jurisdictions. The law has existed for a long time. Training helps people recognise what harassment and bullying actually look like and gives them a way to respond properly. I believe it shouldn’t be a once-off certificate, but should be renewed alongside the rest of STCW. I’ve spent fifteen years working in mental health and I still find something new every time I revisit this material: a different angle or a detail I’d missed last time. I think it is unrealistic to think that someone can finish this training in one sitting and come out the other side fully equipped.
There’s also a more direct problem with pinning hope on training alone. Thinking a module will “fix” someone who is already bullying their crew misunderstands what training does. General awareness training moves the needle on people who genuinely didn’t understand where the line was. It does very little to change someone who has been crossing it deliberately, often for years, often because a leadership culture let them get away with it. That person needs a targeted intervention, not a refresher course: a structured, individually managed process, ideally involving a qualified counsellor or psychologist, that addresses the specific behaviour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does MGN 718 apply to me if I do not hold a UK certificate of competency? Not directly. The requirement follows the UK certificate holder, not the vessel’s flag. If your ticket is Australian, American, or from another flag state, you are not currently covered unless your flag state introduces an equivalent requirement.
What if my vessel is Cayman Islands or Isle of Man flagged? The Red Ensign Group, which includes the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man, often adopts MCA guidance directly. It is worth watching whether these flags introduce their own equivalent requirement, given they collectively register close to double the UK’s own tonnage.
Will this training need to be renewed periodically, like STCW refreshers? That question is still being debated at the International Maritime Organisation. At this stage, MGN 718 does not specify a renewal cycle beyond the existing five-yearly basic survival training refresher it is bundled into.
Is there a financial penalty for the vessel or flag if crew have not completed the training? No. There is no criminal sanction and no direct financial penalty to the vessel. The consequence lands on the individual certificate holder, through non-renewal of their ticket.
Can Port State Control check for this outside the UK? Only UK Port State Control can currently ask UK certificate holders for evidence of completion. Port State Control in other jurisdictions enforces a different rule set and cannot request it under MGN 718.
You Might Also Find This Useful
If MGN 718 has raised questions about how prepared your leadership team actually is to handle a disclosure or a culture problem before it becomes a resignation, one place you can start with rolling out good practices that influence onboard culture is through the:
Uplevel Program: an outside read on crew culture, reporting structures and leadership readiness for yacht management companies who want to get ahead of a gap like this one.
Ready to Lead the Culture, Not Just Pass the Compliance Check?
The regulation provides a framework. It does not protect a crew member in the moment. O’Flaherty was asked to address a specific scenario: a captain committing sexual assault against a stewardess. Where does she stand?
The answer starts with national law. In law, a yacht is a registered business of the flag state. If the incident occurs on a UK-flagged vessel, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and the Equality Act 2010 apply. What has been described is potentially a criminal offence. What a crew member has or has not been trained to do does not change that.
Flag state matters more than most crew realise when they join a vessel. As O’Flaherty put it: look at the stern, look at the flag, because you are about to become subject to the laws of that state. A British passport does not give you British legal protections if you are serving on a vessel registered elsewhere. Some flag states have far weaker explicit protections than others.
The STCW 2030 review is also bringing expanded leadership and management training at both the operational and management levels, recognising that the original code was task-focused to a fault and that having a master who is technically brilliant at pilotage is not enough. Safe ships require well-led ships. That principle is finally making its way into the regulatory framework, even if it arrives slowly.
