Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: maritime sector

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

This policy paper was withdrawn on

See the latest maritime sector policies.

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-maritime-sector/2010-to-2015-government-policy-maritime-sector

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/sustaining-a-thriving-maritime-sector. Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

About 95% of UK imports and exports by volume go by sea. As travel and trade have changed over time, ships and their cargoes have developed in size, character and technology.

To encourage economic growth through trade and travel we:

  • encourage commercial development by ports
  • ensure effective regulation of vessels in UK waters
  • work to improve maritime security and safety, including search and rescue capabilities

Actions

To maintain effective ports for trade and travel we developed the National Policy Statement for Ports.

We aim to increase the number of vessels registered in the UK. This will provide a basis to develop an internationally competitive maritime sector. To do this:

  • we’ve introduced tonnage tax and reformed the ship registration process at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)
  • we’re supporting seafarer training through the Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) scheme
  • the UK Ship Register (UKSR) works with the owners/managers, class societies and other stakeholders in the marine industry to improve the standards of safety at sea

The UK provides a comprehensive search and rescue service for those reported missing or in trouble either on land, on water or in the air. To continue to improve this service we are:

  • working with MCA to modernise HM Coastguard
  • in the process of procuring a fleet of new Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopters

Background

The government’s expectations for the port industry are set out in:

Guidance on safety for harbours and ports is contained in:

Guidance on how a harbour authority can apply to be designated with the power to make harbour directions is contained in:

  • Harbour directions guidance

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) determines the causes of marine accidents with a view to improving safety.

We reviewed ports policy and the interim conclusions were published in 2007:

In 2011, we published a note on how objections to harbour dues would be handled:

We initiated the Coastguard modernisation programme to ensure HM Coastguard keep pace with changing demands, technologies and the economy.

To shape this policy, we used economic and statistical analysis, appraisal, evaluation, modelling, and research.

Who we’ve consulted

The government ran a consultation on The draft ports national policy statement in 2009. This consultation document explained the context of the national policy statement and set out the main policies.

We also ran a consultation on Sale of Trust Ports in England and Wales in May 2011. This looked at the possible sale of a major trust port under the Ports Act 1991, whether under a voluntary or compulsory sales process.

We ran a consultation on the future structure of HM Coastguard in July 2011. We announced our decisions on a small number of remaining points on 22 November 2011 following a further period of consultation.

Bills and legislation

The UK is a signatory to International Maritime Organization and International Labour Organization international agreements such as the Safety of Life at Sea Convention and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). We are obliged under international law to implement these agreements in UK law.

Appendix 1: reforming the Coastguard and UK Search and Rescue Helicopters capability

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Reforming HM Coastguard

MCA are modernising HM Coastguard. They are setting up a new National Maritime Operations Centre with a network of 9 coastguard centres located around the UK coast. This replaces 18 co-ordination centres, each of which operates for a defined locality.

The Department for Transport has been working closely with the MCA to:

  • explore and validate historical data on incidents, including identifying and analysing trends in numbers and nature of incidents over time and by geographical location
  • find innovative ways of visualising and representing the patterns and seasonality within the data

This work has led to the production of a prototype simulation tool that can model how incidents are handled. It uses data from the busiest day on record to show how utilisation rates can vary throughout the day and by geography. The model is being developed to look at a wide range of simulated scenarios. This will enable detailed testing of the nationally networked service, with the eventual intention of better matching workforce to demand.

UK Search and rescue helicopters

The Department for Transport is to take over responsibility for maintaining UK search and rescue helicopters (SAR-H) capability in the UK search and rescue region from the Ministry of Defence. The UK SAR-H service will be managed by the MCA.

The department is evaluating prospective SAR-H operator companies’ (‘bidders’) proposals for how they would meet the requirements of the service.

We have decided that:

  • two of the 12 current bases will close
  • the Sea King aircraft have provided invaluable service to the military and UK public over the last 30 years but the aircraft are now at the end of their useful lives and are extremely expensive to operate and maintain
  • the introduction of modern helicopters would increase efficiency, reduce environmental impact, increase performance and improve safety standards compared to the Sea Kings
  • the contract length will be about 10 years from 2015 at which point the service will be reviewed and renewed or upgraded as necessary

The bidders are free to choose the location of the remaining 10 bases as long as they meet the relevant requirements. The requirements are that every part of the SAR-H region must be in range of a helicopter and that one or more helicopters must be able to reach every part within a specified time.

We have developed a vicinity model to test whether or not, given proposed base locations and the range and speed of modern helicopters, every part of the UK can be reached by one or more helicopters in time. This model has been given to bidders to test proposed base locations, and will also be used by the department during the evaluation of bids.

The vicinity model uses historical incident data relating to SAR-H tasking, and provides visual feedback in the form of a variety of maps and charts that display the performance – ie how well incidents would be responded to by the proposed service – and compares it to the current service.

Appendix 2: helping the maritime sector to grow

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

To help the UK maritime sector to grow we:

  • develop policies that put safety and security first, and also balance environmental and commercial interests
  • encourage shipping companies to register their ships in the UK
  • influence and implement European Union legislation
  • supply efficient and modern marine aids to navigation

UK shipping

The government is committed to the quality shipping initiative. This is a commitment to high quality, good public reputation and predictable performance for all UK-registered ships.

Tonnage Tax

Tonnage Tax, together with registration reforms by MCA, has been a major factor in the revival of the UK shipping register.

Tonnage Tax is an alternative method of calculating Corporation Tax based on the amount of a cargo a ship carries. It brings certainty and clarity about tax liabilities and is used by most other EEA countries. Any shipping company that is ‘centrally managed and controlled’ in the UK can opt into Tonnage Tax. The ships don’t have to be registered in the UK.

A key feature of the UK scheme is the minimum training obligation. This requires each shipping company to recruit and train 1 officer trainee each year for every 15 officer posts in its fleet, and to consider employment and training opportunities for ratings. Trainees must be UK or EEA nationals and be ordinarily resident in the UK.

Seafarers

A seafarer is a person employed or engaged in any capacity on board a seagoing ship on the business of the ship. This is taken to mean a person employed either directly by a shipping company or through a manning agency, whose usual place of work is on board a seagoing ship, and includes masters, crew members, resident entertainers and franchise employees on passenger ships.

The government provides support to the industry (within the European Maritime State Aid Guidelines) with the aim of increasing seafaring skills in the UK. The government meets almost half of the training costs through the SMarT scheme, and requires companies that pay UK Tonnage Tax to train a certain number of officer trainees. The government also supports the industry through the Seafarer earnings deduction tax relief scheme.

Support for maritime training

The SMarT scheme was set up in 1998, following the white paper ‘British shipping: charting a new course’. SMarT helps to make sure that we have people with the right skills by giving financial help to organisations that provide merchant navy training.

We reviewed the SMarT scheme as part of the government’s spending review. In January 2012 the Shipping Minister announced his decision to provide a budget of £12 million a year for the support for maritime training scheme for the remainder of this Parliament. This was increased to £15 million in September 2013.

Most of the SMarT budget will be used to support initial training for cadets studying at junior officer level - this is because of the forecast national shortage of trained seafarers and the need to develop the next generation of UK ratings. The rest will be used for ratings training and ratings to officer conversion training.

Information for seafarers

The Equality Act 2010 (Work on Ships and Hovercraft) Regulations 2011 came into force on 1 August 2011. These regulations apply in England, Wales and Scotland. The relevant provision in Northern Ireland is the Race Relations Order 1997 (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2012, which came into force on 9 July 2012.

The regulations are designed to protect seafarers from discrimination, harassment and victimisation in the same way as other laws protect people working in other sectors. The regulations also clarify how equality legislation applies to work on ships and hovercraft and to seafarers.

Ports sector

The UK ports sector is the second largest in Europe, in terms of tonnage handled. It’s made up of company, trust and municipal ports, all operating on commercial principles, independently of government, and very largely without public subsidy. The private sector operates 15 of the largest 20 ports by tonnage and around two-thirds of the UK ports traffic. The top 15 ports handle almost 80% of the UK’s total traffic.

Until March 2010, The Department for Transport was responsible for all Harbour Revision Orders (HROs) and Harbour Empowerment Orders (HEOs). This is now the responsibility of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

Appendix 3: developing an evidence based maritime transport policy

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

To ensure that transport systems are effective, transport decisions and policies made by government are informed by economic and statistical analysis, appraisal, evaluation, modelling, and research.

To provide the best evidence base for planning transport policies and schemes, mathematical models are used to analyse complex transport patterns.

Research reports

Statistics

Further information

Appendix 4: verify CoCs and CECs online

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Check that officers’ CoCs and CEC are authentic and valid for seagoing service

Appendix 5: consolidated European reporting system (CERS)

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Access to consolidated European reporting system (CERS)

Authorised users can access the consolidated European reporting system (CERS) and Single Vessel Database by logging into CERS reporting

Further information about exchanging maritime data

The European Union (EU), through certain directives, has placed a requirement on member states to work together and with the European Commission on data exchange. Member states should be using a system to record data on:

  • vessel movements
  • dangerous cargoes
  • vessel safety
  • security information
  • the disposal of waste

within European waters.

The EU-wide system that will be used to meet the above requirements is called SafeSeaNet. MCA’s CERS will report to SafeSeaNet and the European Commission.

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