The Seafarers' Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Statutory Instruments

2025 No. 289

MERCHANT SHIPPING

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

HARBOURS, DOCKS, PIERS AND FERRIES

The Seafarers' Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Made

5th March 2025

Laid before Parliament

10th March 2025

Coming into force

1st April 2025

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 3(2) and 4(6) of the Seafarers’ Wages Act 2023(1).

Citation, commencement and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Seafarers’ Wages (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 1st April 2025.

(3) These Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Amendments to the Seafarers’ Wages Regulations 2024

2.—(1) The Seafarers’ Wages Regulations 2024(2) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 5(2)(b) (declarations), for “1st of January before” substitute “first day of”.

(3) In paragraph (1) of regulation 14 (the national minimum wage equivalent)—

(a) in sub-paragraph (a), for “£11.44” substitute “£12.21”;

(b) in sub-paragraph (b), for “£8.60” substitute “£10.00”;

(c) in sub-paragraph (c), for “£6.40” substitute “£7.55”;

(d) in sub-paragraph (d), for “£6.40” substitute “£7.55”.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport

Mike Kane

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department for Transport

5th March 2025

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend regulations 5(2)(b) and 14(1) of the Seafarers’ Wages Regulations 2024 (the “2024 Regulations”). These Regulations come into force on 1st April 2025.

Regulation 2(2) amends regulation 5(2)(b) of the 2024 Regulations. Regulation 5(1) of the 2024 Regulations provides that a harbour authority which is required to request an equivalence declaration, as defined in section 3(2) of the Seafarers’ Wages Act 2023 (c. 8), must do so within the period of 28 days beginning with the later of two dates specified in paragraph (2). Those dates are (a) the day on which the harbour authority has reasonable grounds to believe that ships providing a relevant service will enter, or have entered, its harbour on at least 120 occasions during a relevant year, or (b) the 1st of January before the relevant year to which the request relates. Regulation 2(2) changes (b) so that the relevant date is the first day of the relevant year to which the request relates. The first day of the relevant year is set out in regulation 3 of the 2024 Regulations.

Regulation 2(3) amends regulation 14 of the 2024 Regulations to increase the hourly rates specified for the purposes of the national minimum wage equivalent.

A full impact assessment has not been produced in respect of these Regulations. A full impact assessment of the effect that the Seafarers’ Wages Act 2023 and associated regulations would have on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector was undertaken prior to the passing of the Act. That impact assessment was updated prior to the making of the 2024 Regulations and is available from the Department for Transport, 33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR and is published alongside those Regulations at www.legislation.gov.uk. The impact assessment took account of an annual increase to the national minimum wage equivalent rates. No significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen as a result of these regulations. The Explanatory Memorandum is published alongside these Regulations at www.legislation.gov.uk.

(1)

2023 c. 8.

(2)

S.I. 2024/1015.