The Red Ensign Group is a collaboration of United Kingdom shipping registries including British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies.
[1] Sir Alan Massey of the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency commented: ".. keeping [ships] inside the REG family means that you still have some influence over their quality and performance... We can take administrative measures against members of [it] if we want to so as to ensure that safety is brought up to the necessary standards..."[2] The vessels also receive British Consular assistance and protection.
[7] As an example in 2011 the home port and registry of RMS Queen Mary 2 was changed from Southampton, Great Britain, to Hamilton, Bermuda, a UK overseas territory.
For example a vessel originally registered in the United Kingdom can be easily changed to the Cayman Islands to lower an operator's tax liability while still being able to fly the Red Ensign.
[10] This practice has resulted in criticism from maritime unions who argue that the REG is being used as a Flag of convenience to avoid taxes and use cheap foreign labor.