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It seems not a week goes by without the twin spectres of Covid and Brexit dominating the news, although rarely is it so dramatic. In the latest round of posturing, French fisherman arrived in the Jersey port of St. Helier armed with flares. Cue a response from the Royal Navy and a threat from the French maritime minister Annick Girardin to cut power to the islands if Jersey did not back down. Thankfully, by Thursday afternoon a second Cod War had been averted following talks between Jersey and France. We of course send our best wishes to the Ports of Jersey team who have obviously had quite a few days.
On the mainland meanwhile, we understand that the UK government is planning to publish a “green list” of countries allowing travel without the need for quarantine from the 17th May.
At present, people in England face fines and a potential stretch in medical solitary for travelling abroad without a valid reason. The new system will be based on a traffic light designation, with travellers from amber countries still being required to quarantine on entry to the UK, while only UK or Irish nationals, or UK residents, will be permitted to return from red-list countries. Hopefully this signals that holidays will be allowed this. Just in time too if the weather of late is anything to go by.
Team BPA
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Polls Close Across GB
The polls have closed in the biggest act of democratic renewal outside of a general election ever seen in the UK. Parties standing in the Holyrood and Senedd elections all made promises across a number of important areas for ports.
Whilst the SNP and Welsh Labour are likely to have ‘won’ the elections, it remains to be seen whether or not they will get the majorities they need to govern without support from smaller parties.
The BPA has produced a summary of the most relevant promises from the leading parties in Scotland and Wales. In Scotland, the Labour Party are a potential coalition partner if the SNP do not get the majority they need. They have pledged a new strategy to upgrade ports. The Scottish Greens – another potential coalition partner – have called for more funding for ferries. Read our summary for Scotland here.
In Wales, the governing Labour Party may look to Plaid Cymru, who have called for a master plan for each Welsh port, for support. Read our Welsh summary here.
Results will be announced over the weekend.
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Scrubbers in the News (again)
We found some time this week to get our teeth into a new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) on scrubbers. The ICCT study says that they expect ships to emit at least 10 billion tonnes of scrubber wash water a year. For context, the global shipping sector carries about 11 billion tonnes of cargo each year.
The report states that nearly 300 Mt of wash water is expected to be discharged in major ports worldwide. The report calls on the IMO and individual governments that haven't already to ban scrubber discharges in their waters. It goes on to say that ports could proactively ban scrubber discharges in their waters or undertake monitoring.
The Clean Shipping Alliance (CSA) - a group of shipping companies that support the use of scrubbers has criticised the study. The CSA say that there are errors and poor assumptions used in the modelling.
We will be in touch with members soon to follow up on some data we gathered last year, progressing some of the work we are doing as part of our efforts to better understand the potential impact of scrubbers. If you’d like to know more, get in touch.
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Salvaging Assets
We are grateful to Stephan Hennig, the UK SOSREP, for an extremely interesting session we held with him this morning. This examined his role and issues around maritime salvage and intervention when incidents may impact ports.
One specific point we briefly discussed relates to a current Lloyd’s Corporation consultation on proposals to close its Salvage Arbitration Branch (which provides the support framework for the Lloyd’s Open Form), as it is “no longer considered core” to the corporation’s business.
Whilst several maritime business services groups have suggested this would lessen the UK’s international maritime standing the material issue is that the move would remove the framework for Lloyd's Standard Form of Salvage Agreement which is often used to swiftly agree salvage contracts. This provides a simple and easy to understand agreement between a salvor and a casualty ship’s master, which, as those ports with experience of salvage incidences may know, is a straightforward contract that can be quickly signed in an emergency. Without this there could be lengthy negotiations over terms of commercial contracts, which could indeed lead to a situation worsening significantly.
Thankfully of course salvage and intervention events which involve ports are relatively uncommon but those interested can find a useful summary published this week by Lloyd’s List.
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