Crewing cover for Welsh Fisheries Patrol Vessels

Tender description

Welsh Ministers seek a supplier who can recruit or provide highly skilled vessel crews at relatively short notice to provide the extra cover required to allow the vessels to operate. Welsh Government operate three Fishery patrol Vessels and are responsible for enforcing the entire Welsh zone. The two larger vessels have a minimum safe manning level of four crew and the third vessel a minimum safe manning level of three crew. At present when all crew are available, we are able to get the vessels to sea. But if one member of crew is off for annual/sick leave or training, it is not always possible for the vessels to undertake their statutory duties. All crew on board the vessels have specific qualifications and experience which are required to undertake their roles. Due to the nature of the work involved, it is not possible to move staff from other departments within Welsh Government to cover any period of absence. Lack of sufficient crew has been an issue for a number of years and has raised criticism from a number of areas. It is not feasible to train a relief crew to be deployed elsewhere and made available, leaving the more realistic solution to recruit short term contracted staff who have the skills and level of expertise required to undertake our statutory duties. The initial roles required on the Fishery Patrol Vessels are • Vessel Master • First Mate • Engineer • Rib Coxswain/Mate All these roles have defined qualifications/experience to allow a person to undertake the roles and will be provided at the tender stage. We envisage the contract will allow recruitment up to the value of £120,000 over the next 12 months. The value of the contract is not guaranteed as we cannot forecast how often temporary recruitment services will be required. This is an urgent requirement and we would appreciate if only suppliers who have the ability to source the sector specific roles register their interest for this opportunity.