Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 33
Fifth Report - Maritime 2050
Published 20 Mar 2023
Paragraph 171
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee Maritime 2050: objectives, implementation and effects All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Seafarers’ Wages Bill’s aims must also be supported by the promised welfare charter, which we urge the Government to bring forward as soon as possible. This must include concrete action to hold employers to high standards and to support better mental health among seafarers, and must be underpinned with funding where necessary. We feel that the Government’s current plan to ask operators to sign up voluntarily will not give the assurances and protections that seafarers want and deserve. We therefore call on the Government to make signing up to the charter a mandatory requirement for all UK maritime operators. The relationship of this work to the ‘social framework’ envisaged by Maritime 2050 should be clarified.
From: Transport Committee, Fifth Report - Maritime 2050 (HC 160), paragraph 171, 20 March 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 June 2023 (deadline 20 May 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with some of the Committee's recommendations, partially agrees with others, notes several, and disagrees with the one on the role of ports.
- On decarbonisation, the government agrees and says it "will publish the updated Clean Maritime Plan by the end of 2023", including indicative targets for the domestic maritime sector.
- On UK SHORE, it agrees but is "unable to commit to public long-term funding"; further investment beyond March 2025 "is dependent on future budget decisions".
- On maritime autonomy legislation, it partially agrees: reforms are necessary but "we cannot legislate for them during the current parliamentary session due to competing priorities". It says its response to the Future of Transport review will be published "in the coming weeks".
- It disagrees with the recommendation on the role of ports, stating that it "fully understand[s] the role of ports" and "continues to champion their cause across Government". On the seafarers' welfare charter, it "notes" the recommendation and says the charter will "initially launch on a voluntary basis".