As this year’s UK Seafarers Awareness Week draws to a close the UK Maritime Pilots Association (UKMPA) and the British Ports Association (BPA) have today jointly called on the global shipping industry to raise the bar on pilot transfer safety arrangements for ships arriving and leaving ports.

Ahead of this week’s gathering of Europe’s major port gateways at the European Sea Ports Organisation’s Annual Conference in Italy and terminal operators in Bremen for the Breakbulk expo, the British Ports Association has written to the UK’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss MP, requesting that the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review considers how to replicate the EU’s schemes that provide investment for the transport and infrastructure network.

UK ports are watching developments at the International Maritime Organization closely this week as the Marine Environment Protection Committee meets to debate a number of key issues for global shipping, including eye-catching proposals for speed limits. Ports are on the front line of the effects of climate change and are already taking steps to adapt to increasingly common severe weather events and rising sea levels that have the potential to disrupt shipping and port operations.

The British Ports Association has welcomed the Government’s new Sector Deal for Offshore Wind which will offer significant new opportunities for coastal regions and ports.

Commenting on today’s Budget Statement, the British Ports Association’s Chief Executive, Richard Ballantyne said:

The BPA is calling for all UK fish to be landed in the UK, post-Brexit

The British Ports Association is attending the Party Conferences this year and this week Policy Manager and political specialist, Mark Simmonds, has been with the Conservative Party, following the developments.

The Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf MSP today attended the launch of a new brochure produced by the Scottish ports industry at the British Ports Association’s Scottish Ports Group in Glasgow.

The British Ports Association has today published a new report - ‘A Brexit Dividend’, which calls on the UK Government to deliver on the Prime Minister’s pledge of ‘frictionless’ trade after Brexit.

The British Ports Association has today published new research by infrastructure advisory firm Moffatt & Nichol which shows that UK ports and terminals have an estimated £1.7bn of port infrastructure investment in the development pipeline.