Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020 does not reduce UK seafarer employment levels in (a) 2021 and (b) subsequent years.

We continue to engage with industry and representative bodies to understand where Government can help to ensure job security to UK seafarers. The Department’s Maritime 2050 Strategy comprehensively sets out the current and future issues and opportunities for the UK seafarer workforce, as well as short- and medium-term recommendations for how these opportunities might be realised. One of those recommendations was the amendments to the National Minimum Wage which has recently been extended to all domestic operations in the UK territorial waters and to offshore activity in the UK continental shelf. It allows UK seafarers to compete against seafarers from lower cost markets and provides greater protection to UK operators in the offshore sector who may face competition from low cost operators.