Seafarers statistics data collection

The current Seafarers Statistics publication draws upon records held by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and a survey of members of the Chamber of Shipping (CoS) who employ seafarers. Together these are used to estimate the number of UK officers and ratings active at sea and the number of trainee officer cadets. The Department has been publishing Seafarers Statistics based on uncertificated officers and ratings data collected by the CoS since 2002.

It is our current intention to continue to use the MCA data on certificated officers. However, whilst collecting data on uncertificated officers and ratings through the CoS has typically ensured high response rates, we also wish to understand how many – if any - additional UK uncertificated officers and ratings active at sea lie outside the coverage of the current survey.

The objective of this work is to collect data on the number of seafarers employed at sea as officers or ratings by UK companies. Key tasks include identifying respondents, collating contact details, preparing contact materials and survey tools, distributing the questionnaire, any non-response or clarification follow-up activities, data processing and data validation.