Recommendation 36

HM Government Rejected

The Government disagrees. We fully understand the role of ports, including their public duties as statutory harbour authorities as well as their commercial roles, and the department continues to champion their cause across Government. Specifically with regards to the compliance process in the Seafarers’ Wages Act, this has been designed as a proportionate and appropriate balance of roles between the ports and the MCA. The ports will fulfil the administrative role of ensuring access to ports is conditional on evidence that operators pay seafarers working on services in scope of the Act the equivalent to National Minimum Wage for time worked in the UK and its territorial waters (or payment of a surcharge). However, the MCA will be the body responsible for enforcement and, if necessary, prosecution. The Act has been designed to not interfere with the right to innocent passage under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Act’s requirements will only apply and be enforced as a condition of entry to UK ports in which the UK has jurisdiction over visiting ships and where the right of innocent passage will have ceased to apply. Because vessels visiting a port are not then in innocent passage and are not merely passing through the territorial sea, associated restrictions on the exercise of jurisdiction as set out in UNCLOS do not apply. With reference to the Russian Sanctions, the illegal war in Europe has produced exceptional circumstances. Ports, as is the case for other businesses across almost all sectors, have been and continue to be instrumental in the implementation of sanctions against Russia. We maintain close contact with the ports sector and have published six versions of industry guidance to support them in conducting due diligence on vessel movements. We will continue to update this as appropriate and engage stakeholders, as we did regularly through the Maritime Sanctions Taskforce, on any further developments.