Port State Control and New Inspection Regime
This page sets out the mechanisms by which international maritime conventions are policed by flag and port state administrations and how they relate to the master's role.
What is port state control?
The primary responsibility for policing maritime conventions rests with the flag states who have signed them. This is because in signing a convention, a state expresses its clear intention to commit itself and its ships to be bound by its responsibilities.
Only signatory states have the authority to issue conventions certificates to ships on their register. Ships carry them as documentary evidence of their compliance concerning construction, equipment, operation, manning and pollution prevention requirements of the conventions.
Signatory states give the conventions life by incorporating them into their domestic laws.
Ensuring consistent and continuous control over their ships, however, presents a compliance verification problem for flag states whose fleets scattered globally.
The solution to this problem is Port State Control (PSC).
Port state control is a secondary means of policing the conventions, whereby ships visiting the ports of other signatory states perform inspections of visiting ships.
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What are substandard ships?
Substandard ships are ships that substantially cannot comply with applicable maritime conventions.
Failure to comply may be due to the following factors:
- absence or failure of mandatory equipment and arrangements, particularly fire fighting and safety-related items.
- the crew's lack of familiarity with the ship’s equipment, which presents an unacceptable hazard to the crew and the ship.
- situations where insufficient manning and certification is discovered on board.
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What is an initial inspection?
Initial inspection is a visit on board a ship to check both the validity of the relevant certificates and other documents and the overall condition of the ship, its equipment and its crew.
Vessels are subject to an initial inspection under the New Inspection Regime according to a calculated inspection schedule for that vessel. The aim of these inspections is to ensure that all vessels are eventually inspected, with minimal disruption to the vessel.
Initial inspections are conducted under the assumption that the vessel is compliant and in good order. They involve a general inspection of the vessel, its equipment, appliances and documentation.
Initial inspections may be initiated:
- on the initiative of the Port State
- at the request of another State
- based on information regarding a ship provided by a member of the crew, a professional body, an association, a trade union or any other individual concerned for the safety of the ship.
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What are the outcomes of a Port State Control inspection?
The outcomes of the inspection are:
- the raising of a deficiency
- the stoppage of an operation
- detention of the vessel
How are vessels selected for routine initial inspections?
Vessels that are not selected for inspection due to extraordinary circumstances, such as an accident or notification from another port state authority, are scheduled for inspection under the New Inspection Regime, which utilises ship risk profiles and timed inspection windows.
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What is the New Inspection Regime?
In recent years, New Inspection Regimes (NIRs) have been adopted by both the Paris and Tokyo MOUs.
These new regimes introduced intelligence-led modelling that generates ship risk profiles (SRP) based on various parameters including vessel type, age, flag, company performance and the vessel's history of prior port state control deficiencies and detentions.
The risk profile is calculated daily by the MoU's database and identifies the ship as either low risk, standard risk or high-risk ships.
This intelligence-led inspection regime aims to reward high-quality vessels and managing companies with a reduced inspection burden while directing greater attention towards potentially substandard ships. High-risk ships must undergo routine inspections at intervals no greater than six months, while low-risk ships will be inspected at intervals no longer than 24 months.
The NIR introduced the practice of including the performance of a ship’s managing company, as identified on the ISM DoC in its risk ratings. As with flag states and Recognised Organisations, companies are ranked in four separate grades: above average, average, low and very low.
The company's performance calculations consider previous port State control outcomes in the ship's life, including detentions, deficiencies and successful inspections of the complete fleet of the company.
Databases are used to coordinate inspections within the two MOUs (THETIS for the Paris MoU and APCIS for the Tokyo MoU). They automatically recalculate the SRP daily, taking the latest inspection information into account.
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What is the purpose of the New Inspection Regime?
The NIRs purpose is to use current intelligence data to identify ships that require the greatest attention under port State control.
- LRSs are rewarded for their diligence and are not subjected to inspection within the 24 months following the last initial inspection, with a maximum inspection-free period of 36 months, after which they become priority one (PI) ships.
- SRSs are inspected every ten to twelve months, after which it becomes a PI ship.
- HRSs face a more stringent inspection interval of six months, after which they become a PI ship.
The databases prioritise inspections according to the inspections windows given above. Priority I vessels are those whose inspection windows have closed. Priority II vessels are those still within their inspection windows and may be inspected by the port State.
Several factors can increase the risk profile of a vessel, some of which are beyond the control of the ship’s master.
A high incidence of deficiencies identified during the inspection, or indeed the detention of a vessel in port, can bring a company into disrepute by negatively affecting the standing of their fleet within the databases.
A lowering of the risk rating attracts ever-increasing port State attention to vessels, which raises the possibility of the detention of the vessel.
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Port State control regimes move to boost collaboration, harmonisation and information sharing: https://t.co/g3d7J3cvk8 pic.twitter.com/cfn4fympoA
— IMO (@IMOHQ) November 6, 2017
Do the conventions put any limitations on port State control?
SOLAS chapter 1 regulation 16 (SI/16) stipulates that a vessel cannot be delayed in port if a repair facility is not readily available.
This means that, provided that appropriate temporary technical and watchkeeping arrangements can be made to ensure safe passage to a repair facility, a vessel cannot be detained unduly in the inspection port. Under these circumstances, the flag State administration will furnish the ship's master with a dispensation to cover the defective equipment, dated to give sufficient time for the vessel to undertake the voyage.
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