A place of sustainable growth for the UK Flag – Katy Ware
Greater opportunities for the UK Flag to build on the services it offers to customers is the first direct benefit of integrating the UK Ship Register into the Maritime & Coastguard Agency.
Under the direction of Katy Ware, the team will be part of the Directorate of Maritime Safety and Standards, accessing surveyor expertise, policy, technical knowhow and influencing policy that’s world beating. Katy Ware, who is also the UK’s Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization has an impressive track record and reputation across the industry. And while she recognises there’s a great opportunity awaiting the UKSR, there’s one thing she makes clear very quickly.
‘While I and the team fully intend to look at pragmatic standard setting working with industry, everyone needs to be clear that safety will not be compromised for commercial expediency,’ she insists. ‘We have a world class reputation to uphold and improve even further. Anyone boarding or working on board a UK flagged-ship needs to have confidence those standards have been applied to uphold safety.’ Katy Ware’s priority is working with the team at the UKSR to look at making sure the product is right for the customer.
She said:
We need to be absolutely customer-focussed. That might sound obvious but actually what that looks like in practice is how we work with our customers to make sure that the whole journey from the moment they join the flag works for them. We have a unique ability to feed back from our customers to our surveyors and policy officials and then beyond that to the International Maritime Organization. I’m under no illusion that this is a period of transition and we absolutely need to involve all our customers in that process. You can’t tell people what they want, you need to listen to them and see how you can work towards standing alongside them when and where they need it.
Put like that, it sounds a very daunting task. Has she taken on too much? ‘If I was on my own, then perhaps the answer to that question would be yes.,’ says Katy. ‘But the UK Ship Register is a terrific team of people all working to create the best experience for each and every customer. And when you put that team together - as we have done - with the wider operational team surveyors, technical experts, policy makers and so much more – I’m more than confident we can achieve this.
‘We have world class surveyors. We have the ability to make world class regulation. We have world-class oversight of our recognised organisations. The UK Flag is fifth for international Port State Control on the Paris MoU White List of top-performing flags.
We aren’t going to just copy someone else. We will work with our customers and our team to find our own place and make it a place of sustainable growth for the flag.’