New style certificates for UK seafarers and those serving on UK ships
Starting this
month (February), UK seafarers and those working on UK-flagged vessels
will receive the new photocard certificates from the Maritime and
Coastguard Agency, wherever they are in the world.
The new
style waterproof certificates will be issued for Certificates of
Competency and Boatmasters’ Licences. Certificates of Equivalent
Competency have been similarly redesigned and as part of the update will now be
called Flag State Endorsement. The photocards will be issued to
all new applicants, as well as those who were given temporary certificates on a
renewal basis by the MCA to allow them to continue
their vital work during the pandemic.
It is
a change that comes as part of the UK Flag state’s wider
commitment to modernise its services to seafarers. As well as issuing new
cards, the agency will now be accepting digital copies of seafarer
documentation, with a random sample requiring original documents.
Katy
Ware, MCA said “We can’t say enough how much we value the work of our seafarers
and the best way to show that is to provide practical support. In this case,
we’ve been working quickly to adapt and modernise our services for seafarers
through the past 12 months. This will make the certification process much
faster for them.
“During
this whole process, we’ve made sure we’ve involved organisations representing
those who will be using these to make sure all that is done meets their
requirements as well as ours. The upgrade to seafarer certification
complements our recent digitalisation of the UK Ship Register and our plans to
bring further seafarer training online in the coming months.”
During
the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, the UK has been quick to act to
support workers across the maritime sector, issuing extension to
certificates to ensure that seafarers could still work.
Currently, the MCA’s UK Seafarer Services issues over 15,000 certificates each year and the modernised process will see up to 80% reduction in the hard copy documentation required from seafarers to process applications.
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