Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with (a) InnovateUK and (b) the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the appraisal of projects funded in each round of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.

The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) is funded by the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme in the Department for Transport, to support innovation in the maritime sector. The CMDC is delivered and managed by Innovate UK on behalf of the Department.

We are committed to a robust evaluation of the UK SHORE programme. The Department has commissioned Frontier Economics and SYSTRA Ltd to conduct a comprehensive independent evaluation of the UK SHORE programme, which is assessing the processes and impact of all UK SHORE schemes and will inform future policy development.

In March 2025, the Department for Transport published a report setting out the early outcomes of the evaluation of the UK SHORE programme to date, including completed projects in the CMDC, with the final report due in Autumn 2025.

Officials regularly discuss the appraisal of CMDC projects with Innovate UK, who play a key role in collecting project monitoring data to inform the evaluation programme.

We work jointly across Government to develop policies, regulation and mechanisms to support maritime environment and decarbonisation, including with the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology.