Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the (a) mental and (b) physical health of seafarers.

The mental and physical health of seafarers is an important issue. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has just published two complementary publications ‘Wellbeing at Sea: A guide for organisations’ and ‘Wellbeing at Sea: A pocket guide for seafarers’ to support organisations and individuals to prioritise wellbeing onboard. I welcome the framework that was issued by the IMO which seeks to address crew change issues that have emerged due to the pandemic and have had adverse impacts on the health and wellbeing of seafarers. I have previously written to UN organisations asking for an international solution to this issue, confirming the UK’s position on crew changes, and also urged other countries to allow crew changes to take place. DfT Officials have been working with the Merchant Navy Welfare Board and support the steps taken by the working group to aid the mental and physical health of seafarers.

In addition, Government guidance for operators and passengers has been updated to provide greater detail on how social distancing can be maintained in the maritime sector and customer-facing roles to reduce the risk to staff health whilst ensuring services keep running. Under the new PPE guidance, DfT officials are working with industry to ensure seafarers and passengers have adequate access to face masks prior to boarding vessels in order to protect their physical health.