The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Hard Brexit could mean grounding support fleet Association has a ‘dependence’ on sailors from Eastern Europe
There will not be enough UK seafarers to maintain the North Sea’s offshore support vessel fleet in the event of a hard Brexit, according to an organisation for ship operators.
The Emergency Response and Rescue Vehicle Association (ERRVA) said there is a “great dependence” on eastern European crew members, and restricted access to workers would be “very detrimental” to the shipping and offshore industries.
It comes after Oil and Gas UK warned that a “no deal” Brexit scenario could lead to platforms needing to be shut down if there are difficulties in recruitment for “crucial” standby ERRVs.
ERRVA chairman David Kenwright said: “On most offshore support vessels there are Eastern European crew members.
“There are not enough UK personnel to fill all the posts that exist and the same thing applies to some of the posts offshore on some of the installations.
“What I can definitely say is that there are insufficient seafarers to maintain the offshore support vessel fleet if there were restrictions on some nationals coming into the UK.”
Oil and Gas UK estimates that around 7% of the offshore workforce comes from other EU countries.
For ERRVs, Mr Kenwright said that a “dependence” on European nationals and crew members from other parts of the world such as the Philippines has been growing “for some time”.
He added that it would be very difficult to recruit locally in the event of worker restrictions as there is little “appetite” for new starts in the sector.
He said: “You cannot create a seaman or a navigating officer overnight – it takes a period of years. There isn’t really the appetite for new-starts in the industry. There are a number, of course, but go back 40 years there were a far more UK nationals in the industry than today.
“I think it’s down to the fact that people don’t want to be away from home for long periods.
“I think it will be very difficult to recruit more people locally.” euro, the pound down 0.2% at 1.13.
Mike Hardie, head of inflation at the ONS, said: “Food was the main downward pull on inflation as last year’s September price rises failed to reappear, while ferry prices dropped.
“However, it wasn’t all one-way traffic with energy suppliers pushing up their prices.”
September’s rate is closely watched as it is used to calculate increases to business rates in the following April.
The lower than expected inflation rate means July’s earnings growth figure of 2.6% will likely be used to calculate state pension increases for 2019 under the government’s triplelock policy. was
“September’s price rises failed to reappear”