General News
Sailing out of UK waters
"Submit a Pleasure Craft Report (sPCR) is a new means of submitting passage info to Border Force and HMRC. Follow Sailing pleasure craft to and from the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) to learn more. The C1331 can still be used but this promises to be more convenient - but nothing like as convenient as before bureaucrats stuck their nose in following Brexit!
From 1st June to 30 September 2023, several marina destinations will benefit from some sense regarding customs/immigration concessions - you will not have to travel to the bureaucratic centres on arrival and departure. Go to rya.org.uk/temporary-concessions for more info.
Calor Gas
Calor Gas are reported to have reversed their decision to end the supply of "dumpy" cylinders - we use these on some of our yachts. Full story on https://www.rya.org.uk/news/2024/01/04/calor-gas-reversal
Universal Permission to Travel Systems
An email has been circulated from Submit a Pleasure Craft Report Service <submit.a.pleasure.craft.report.service@notifications.service.gov.uk>
We are contacting you regarding our roll-out of digital immigration products, which includes the transition from physical immigration documents such as visa vignettes, Biometric Residence Permits/Cards (BRP/Cs) to digital-only eVisas and the introduction of Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETAs).
From September 2024, some visa national passengers will hold digital-only eVisas. These passengers will no longer have physical immigration documents for your staff to check. If a ‘Valid Permission to Travel Found’ response is received via the Submit a Pleasure Craft Report (sPCR) web service, please note that skippers, operators and agents are not required to make further checks for a visa or other immigration document. You will not be subject to any carriers’ liability in relation to that passenger’s permission to travel.
If a ‘Need Document Checks’ response is received, for visa national passengers you should conduct a manual check by:checking for a valid, physical visa or other immigration document and/or using a Sharecode, which passengers with digital immigration products can request from their UKVI (UK Visa and Immigration) account. Please refer to the attached Sharecode documentation for more details about using Sharecode to check a digital-only product.
Information can also be found at https://www.gov.uk/check-immigration-status.
In all cases, you should continue to check that the passport or travel document held by the passenger is valid, genuine and in the possession of the rightful holder.
In addition, we are consolidating multiple contact points within the Home Office to a single point of contact: the new UK Border Force Carrier Support Hub. This will be a 24/7 support function to answer all carrier queries related to a passenger’s permission to travel to the UK; security related queries, or technical support for submitting data to the Home Office. The UK Border Force Carrier Support Hub will go live on the 30th September 2024 at 10:00am (UTC). You can contact the hub on the following telephone number: +44 300 369 0610 after the go-live date.
Thank you for your continued support and co-operation.
Comment: Basically, I think it says, if you are skipper taking the boat abroad then you need to do something if one of your crew holds a non-UK passport. It's probably unlikely for us but I'd try and dump it in the Home Office's lap if it crops up.