Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to support essential transitional technologies in the marine industry.

The Maritime 2050 Strategy highlights the importance of new technologies to the future of the maritime sector and sets out the ambition to become a world leader in marine innovation. To support this, DfT has provided over £5m in funding to Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK), which acts as a national body to coordinate research and development in maritime innovation.

Technology development is also critical to support the UK’s wider decarbonisation agenda. The Department’s Clean Maritime Plan (CMP), published in July 2019, outlined the UK’s pathway to zero carbon emissions in the domestic maritime arena. In March, DfT launched the £20 million Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) to enable the development and commercialisation of novel solutions for clean maritime technologies. Further details of our policies will be set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, which will be published this year.