On Thursday, September 13, the UK Government published another 28 technical notices, which advise on how potential disruption from a no-deal exit from the European Union can be minimised. Now, the UK Chamber of Shipping said that a No-Deal Brexit could potentially inconvenience operators of UK-flagged ships.
The latest set of technical notices includes two important shipping-related notices: one on seafarer certification and one on maritime security. The UK Chamber’s immediate concerns are focused on how seafarer employment would be affected by a no-deal Brexit.
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The technical notice on seafarer certification presents the basis for seafarer employment in STCW; the requirement for a Certificate of Competency (CoC) and a Certificate of Equivalent Competency (CEC), and the methods of recognition for those certificates.
It then explains the legal basis of existing CoCs and CECs in a no-deal scenario, recognising the continued validity of such certificates until their stated expiration date.
The UK Chamber welcomed the Government’s intention to continue accepting CoCs from other EU Member States, as this will ensure that operators of UK-flagged ships will be able to use European sources to meet any shortages in the supply of ships’ officers.
However, if the UK stops its relationship with EMSA, it may no longer be able to rely on the latter’s assessments of member states’ training and certification systems to meet its obligations under the STCW Convention to evaluate other countries’ system, Tim Springett, the UK Chamber’s Policy Director said.
The UK Chamber of Shipping also called the Government to negotiate a long-term agreement for the continued reciprocal recognition of UK and EU seafarer certificates.
In addition, in case of a no-deal Brexit, maritime stakeholders would need to prepare for the loss of the EU exemption. The notice suggests that companies who currently hold exemptions should prepare for a scenario where pre-arrival information will need to be submitted to the EU ports from which their services operate.
As such, the Chamber plans to work with the Department for Transport to determine how such declarations for ferries operating frequent and regular services will be submitted and how the data set might be simplified for such services.