The Bulletin : UK leads the call on crew changes.

We were proud to support Maritime Safety Week. The week highlighted the importance of safety at sea and recognised the excellent safety work that already goes on across the sector. As part of the Maritime Safety Week Grahaeme Henderson agreed to write a blog about Mental Wellbeing which you can read here.

The Merchant Navy Training Board has been delighted to help in the development of the new Mental Health Awareness and Wellbeing Training standard with The Maritime Charities Group, read more here.

Later this week we had a fantastic UK Chamber of Shipping webinar in partnership with Global Marine Travel, Inchcape Shipping Services & V Ships, Keeping Crew Moving Throughout Covid19. Thank you to Chris Podolsky, Colin Robinson, David Wonfor for presenting. We had over 70 participants from around the world. Join our next online webinar on the 15th July 2020 at 2 pm in conjunction with HFW, for an overview of the laws and practices relating to the sale and disposal of end of life vessels. Director of Policy, David Balston, will open the webinar with a brief explanation of the UK Chamber of Shipping's ship recycling policy. You can find out more here.

I would like to congratulate Minister Tolhurst for a very well run and well attended ministerial summit she hosted yesterday, with high level representation from all the major seafaring nations.  It was excellent to see strong UK leadership in hosting this vitally important summit.   It was heartening to hear the commitment from all participants to do whatever is necessary, nationally and internationally, to resolve this unfolding humanitarian and economic crisis.  In particular, the signing of the Joint Declaration by the majority of participants represents significant progress towards this objective, and I look forward to seeing practical steps on its implementation.   The signatories undertook to designate seafarers as key workers, accept recognised seafarers’ documentation for the purpose of travel, adopt the IMO protocols on crew changes, review current restrictions on travel including exemption from quarantine rules, issue visa waivers and other relaxations, and consider ways of providing access to commercial flights for seafarers.
The Chamber has been delighted with the increased level of member engagement during lockdown and the very positive feedback we have received. This support is invaluable in these tough times and I believe there are many non-members out there, who receive this Weekly Bulletin, who could benefit from Chamber membership. If your company has been considering joining the Chamber as a Ship Owner, Manager or Professional company and would like to discuss membership further, please contact our Head of Membership & Business Development, Tony Jerome.  Having more companies on board will only strengthen the Chamber’s voice and profile. To the benefit of the UK Shipping industry.

Finally, you can watch my full interview about the future of shipping with Ince Senior partner Julian Clark. We discussed exciting plans both for Ince and the Chamber, the state of the shipping sector including emerging challenges and COVID-19, and how both organisations are providing ongoing support to the industry. 
Bob