Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) seafarer employment and (b) the maritime cluster in the UK of the UK Ship Register’s decisions to (i) expand its criteria for shipowner eligibility and (ii) introduce a system of bareboat charter-out.

The effect on seafarer employment of the UK Ship Register’s decisions to expand its criteria for shipowner eligibility could be positive and should provide employment opportunities for UK Nationals as more ships would be UK registered, likewise bareboat charter-out is regarding vessel ownership and does not have an adverse impact on seafarer employment opportunities.

The effect on the maritime cluster in the UK of the UK Ship Register’s decisions to expand its criteria for shipowner eligibility could have a positive impact on maritime clusters within the UK as there is potential for more ships to visit the UK. There would also be an increase in revenue for the UK Flag which would be positive to UK PLC.

For bareboat charter-out, there would be an impact in that the ship is suspended from the UK Flag and therefore revenue is impacted but only for the time that the vessel is chartered out. When the vessel returns to the UK Flag, revenue would increase as the vessel does not leave the UK Flag which has previously been the case.