Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans the Government has to encourage more young people to take up careers as Merchant Navy ratings.

The Government is fully committed to encouraging more young people to enter the Merchant Navy at all levels working across the maritime sector.

To support the training of ratings and officers the Government provides support through the £15m “Support for Maritime Training” (SMarT) scheme. There is also a 3 year pilot within the tonnage tax training link allowing tonnage tax companies to train three able seafarer ratings in place of one officer trainee each year responding to industry calls to provide more flexibility. Ratings training is also offered through maritime apprenticeships and further ratings apprenticeships are under development.

To encourage the take up of ratings training, the Government works with the maritime industry including the maritime unions in addressing this through, for example, the Ratings Taskforce. The Maritime Growth Study also highlighted the need to raise awareness of careers in the maritime sector. As a result, the industry led “Maritime UK People and Skills Steering Group”, has created an “Awareness subgroup” to identify ways to raise the profile of maritime careers. The group comprises of a cross section of representatives from across the sector, including Government.