Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that regional domestic ferry operators are supported to meet the goals of the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy.

The Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy sets out a pathway to zero emissions by 2050, and interim goals in 2030 and 2040.

To support the sector transition to zero, and near-zero, emission fuels, the Strategy sets out a number of key policies including; expanding the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to maritime, the introduction of fuel regulations, taking action to reduce emissions at berth, taking proportionate measures to reduce emissions from smaller vessels and increasing the efficiency of maritime operations.

Support is available to the maritime sector for decarbonisation through our UK SHORE Research and Development programme. Over 300 projects across the UK have been supported to date, including those that support the decarbonisation of domestic ferries. In September, I announced a further £448 million of funding for innovation through this programme, including additional rounds of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competitions, and a second round of the Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure competition. We aim to launch the first two of these competitions in Spring 2026 and they will run until 2030.