Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to support the (a) development and (b) procurement of decarbonising technology in the maritime sector.

My department is supporting the decarbonisation of the UK maritime sector through a two-pronged approach: R&D funding and investment through the £206m UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme, the biggest government investment ever in our commercial maritime sector, accompanied by a comprehensive policy and regulatory programme.

So far UK SHORE has invested R&D funding to the tune of over £95m in three rounds of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, £7.4m in a Clean Maritime Research Hub in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and £77m Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition, which will see three-year demonstrations of operational zero emission vessels and the infrastructure needed to support them deployed by 2025.