It has been another week where life has begun to feel a bit more normal. As restrictions were eased on Monday we have seen the return of international travel.  Although the countries we can visit are currently quite limited, it is another step in the right direction. For the cruise industry, yesterday saw the first ship leaving a UK port for over a year. The MSC Virtuosa left Southampton yesterday afternoon with around 900 guests as she spends the summer sailing around the UK, calling in at some of the most popular ports including Liverpool. We look forward to seeing more cruise sailings in the weeks ahead.

In Scotland a new Cabinet has been sworn in and we have already written to the new Cabinet Secretary responsible for transport matters, Michael Matheson MSP to congratulate him on his appointment, as well as to the new Tourism Minister Ivan McKee.. We look forward to working with the whole of the Scottish Government over the coming months on the many priorities our members have in Scotland.

As regular readers of this Bulletin will know, decarbonisation is one of our top priorities at the Chamber and next week the IMO’s Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships meets to finalise the guidelines for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) and Carbon Intensity Indicators (CIIs).  We expect some difficult negotiations to take place next week and our Carbon Working Group has been very active reviewing proposals and formulating positions as well as providing specific technical advice to DfT to enable the UK delegation to properly assess the impact that the different options would have to the UK and on the industry. The Chamber will attend this meeting virtually and provide an update on the outcome of these discussions to its membership.

For any members in East Anglia, next week the government will be testing a new alert system. The new Emergency Alerts system will warn people when lives are in danger, in emergencies such as severe flooding or terror attacks via their mobile phone. The service will be tested in East Suffolk on 25 May, 1-2pm. To find out more, visit www.gov.uk/alerts.

Bob