It is hard to believe that we are nearly 4 months into the year and over 12 months since the country went into lockdown. So much has happened and the world has changed dramatically and during Covid we have adapted at the Chamber to represent our members needs.

We have had some major media moments and significant policy wins and all of our members should have either received their membership call or will receive within the next few days. When we conducted our recent membership survey I was delighted to see 76% of our members scored our Covid-19 pandemic support an 8-10 out of 10 and 87% gave the same scores for recommending Chamber membership. You can read more about our achievements and our membership survey here.

This time last week the government published its Global Travel Taskforce report on the resumption of international travel. This week I met with the Aviation and Maritime Minister Robert Courts to discuss the outcome of the report which we were broadly very supportive of. But we know there are still issues for our members and I raised these with the minister and we will continue to work with him and his team at DfT in the coming weeks.

On Monday we will be holding a fascinating webinar with Waves Group on the future of LNG. This webinar will provide an insight into LNG as an energy source, its extraction process, shoreside storage, vessel loading facilities, types of vessels and bunkering operations. It will also provide a practical guide to industry practices and the inherent risks and mitigations for transporting, handling, and bunkering of LNG. If you haven’t booked your place, which is free for members, there is still time and you can register on our website.

Finally this week I would like to welcome back our Policy Director Anna Ziou from her maternity leave after giving birth to her son Zac last year. Anna is an expert in environmental policy and will initially be returning three days a week and everyone at the Chamber is delighted to have Anna back.  

Bob