UNITED KINGDOM REPORT After the highs of 2000, the last year has seen a significant downturn in almost all sectors, which in turn was aggravated by the consequence of the tragic events of 11 September in the USA. Nevertheless, despite the immediate commercial outlook, the fundamentals remain strong. The tonnage tax, adopted in July 2000, has had a considerable effect on various measures of the United Kingdom fleet. To date, more than 50 company groups representing 600 ships have signed up for the tax and that has had a knock-on effect on the size of both the UK-owned and UK-registered fleets. In the last two years, the deadweight tonnage of ships owned by companies based in the UK has increased by over 50%. For UK-registered vessels, there has been a similar increase, although it should be noted that a more "user-friendly" attitude by the registration authority has also been influential here. The success of the tonnage tax in numbers of companies electing to the new regime and of officer trainees being recruited by tonnage tax companies - has been heartening. We now await with eagerness the increase in training recruitment that should follow. It has been well documented that the UK tonnage tax model derives its unique status by virtue of the associated training commitment required from those companies opting in. By October, the total number of officer trainees required to be recruited annually by companies within the tonnage tax regime will be over 500. This is above the average overall recruitment level in recent years and it should be noted that a number of companies which are significant trainers did not elect for the tonnage tax. Current hopes therefore are that the overall intake should increase significantly. The training commitment has created a demand for much greater certainty regarding the number and associated demographic information of the maritime workforce. For several years there has been reliable data available on deck and engineer officers via the certificate revalidation process. However the situation for other officers, ratings and, to some extent, cadets has been less concise. Moves to improve this situation are now progressing by means of government / industry initiatives to collect information direct from the employing companies. The latest London Guildhall University/Chamber of Shipping Seafarers Analysis shows an estimated 21,600 UK seafarers (including trainees) employed throughout the world at the end of June 2001. Ostensibly this suggests a decrease of some 11% on the previous year, although it is thought that changes in the requirements for revalidation of certificates has caused some volatility in recent year's figures. The new maritime awareness initiative reported in last year's Report is developing into a fully fledged campaign spanning all maritime-related activities within the United Kingdom. The initiative is to be launched formally in the coming months with a new name and logo, together with a full strategic plan for the future. The campaign is also taking part in a number of promotional events and programmes designed both to improve the public perception of the maritime sector both in general terms and to support careers and recruitment efforts in the many individual industries and activities within the UK maritime sector.