Research and analysis: The contribution of shipping to the English economy

Requirement R100

Requirement detail

This requirement is to provide a fuller picture of the economic contribution of the ports and shipping sectors. It will do this by identifying datasets that could be combined, or used alongside each other to gain a fuller picture of the economic contribution of ports and shipping.

There are a number of data sets that have been used on a shipping sector basis, primarily: economics (attaching £ values to shipping activities and employment values); shipping activity (vessel types and number of transits); and ports activity (port traffic categorisation, volume and value). These all relate to parts of shipping trade flows – the movement of goods and services relating to shipping. Linking these up should give a clearer picture of the economic importance of ship-based trade and its use of space within a plan area. This would also allow for an improved understanding of the composition of activity of each port allowing the question ‘what proportion is for recreation and what is for commercial shipping?’ to be answered.

The requirement will need to explore what datasets are available to complete this task for example, economic datasets from the Office for National Statistics. It will then need to look at developing a method for combining them, bringing together spatial and non-spatial information. The method will need to be tested, possibly through stakeholder engagement, before a report is produced to highlight its limitations and capabilities for marine planning. For example, this will most likely include an assessment of how robust the outputs are and whether they could be used to justify marine plan policies that differentiate between various ports and shipping routes.

MMO use

Marine Planning:

This will improve delivery of marine plan policies relating to ports and shipping and their consideration alongside other uses of space in marine plan areas.

External interest

The ports and shipping industry

Delivery target

Q2 2018