Marine Operations Code for Ports: Bulletin No.11 (October 1999)

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Bulletin No.11 - October 1999

This is the eleventh of a series of monthly bulletins issued by the Department to report progress with development of a Marine Operations Code for Ports, following recommendations in the Department's review of the Pilotage Act. The review of the Pilotage Act 1987 followed a Marine Accident Investigation Branch report on the SEA EMPRESS. The report's main proposal was that a "Marine Operations Code for Ports" should be developed, covering all port safety functions, and not just pilotage. Enquiries, contributions and comments (including e-mails) may be made to Andrew Burr, Colin Morris, Cameron Clark or Jackie Shaw at the previous address.

This Bulletin gives a monthly summary of progress with the Code project, which is in three parts:

  • The Code itself, setting a standard for the discharge of duties and powers of harbour authorities
  • Competence Standards, for all disciplines managing the safety of port navigation
  • A Guide to Best Practice, giving operational guidance on the requirements of the Code.

The project is led by the Department with help from ad hoc groups of professionals from the industry.

Consultation

Representative bodies are kept informed through periodic meetings at which key issues can be discussed. Attendance at these meetings - and support for ad hoc groups - is good and at a high level. There have been three such meetings so far. The last was on on 16 September.

The purpose of the last meeting was to report the outcome of consultation on a draft of the Code; to discuss matters of particular concern to the UK Pilots' Association; and to plan next steps.

The UKPA proposed to discuss concerns about possible mis-use of pilotage exemption certificates, and the management of vessels exempted from authorities' pilotage directions.

It is agreed that there should be complete confidence in the proper use of exemption certificates. It is proposed to address this by introducing written agreements between harbour authorities and certificate holders (and their sponsors) recognising administrative procedures requiring certificate holders to co-operate with measures to monitor use. These will be covered in the Code and the Guide.

The exemption of vessels from pilotage will be required to be on the basis of a formal risk assessment, and justified in authorities' published policies and plans.

The Code

The latest publicly available draft of the Code was completed at the end of June and was circulated for comment by the end of August. A paper summarising the comments received is available on request. A further draft is now in preparation.

A key task before the next draft is to co-ordinate the Code text with that of the Best Practice Guide. It is important that they should have a common format and cover the same subjects - albeit at different levels. Some material in the draft Code also has to be transferred.

Competence Standards

British Ports Industry Training is developing the competence standards. A steering group has met on 8 June, 21 July and 29 September.

This part of the project is concentrating initially on standards for marine pilots. Good progress has been made, although an additional meeting has been required for certain detail. Extending the project to other port marine disciplines will be discussed with BPIT's board on 13 October.

IMO's NAV Committee, convening during September, considered the STCW recommendation on marine pilot training and it agreed amendments have been referred back to STCW and MSC.

Best Practice Guide

A group of senior port managers has undertaken to assemble material for a best practice guide. They are finalising an outline which will propose a structure and content for the Guide, with some section developed to illustrate the level of detail and style.

Bringing the Project Together

A further meeting of representative bodies is arranged for 22 October. It is planned to present to that meeting:

  • a complete draft of the Code;
  • the draft competence standards for marine pilots
  • the outline Best Practice Guide.

This will initiate a further round of consultation up to the end of 1999. There will be a further meeting in January linked to an aim to settle the text of the Code by the end of 1999. The other parts of the project are likely to run until Easter 2000.

Presentations

A series of presentations is planned during the consultation period A presentation will be made to the BPA Conference (in Douglas) on 7 October. UKHMA have a seminar in London on 9 November. This is being supported by the Nautical Institute and the Institute of Marine Engineers. UKPA have kindly offered a session at their Conference on 11 November, also in London.