Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps his Department is taking to support the decarbonisation of the maritime industry in Scotland.

The UK Government is working actively with the maritime sector to support decarbonisation at both international and domestic level. My office works closely with the Department for Transport which leads on this work and which is focussing on supporting the decarbonisation of the industry throughout the whole of the UK. I also met with Maritime UK last month to discuss the sector decarbonisation in Scotland.

Domestically, the UK Government has published research exploring the opportunities and challenges arising from decarbonisation and this will provide the sector with greater clarity on what is required to achieve decarbonisation. In support of this, the Department for Transport has provided £1.5m of grants through Maritime Research and Innovation UK, supporting clean maritime innovation throughout the UK.

Internationally we are working with other high ambition states and the sector to develop and adopt pragmatic, effective, short and medium term measures that will peak and reduce emissions from the sector.