Marine Operations Code for Ports: Bulletin No.29 (May 2001)

Bulletin No.29 - May 2001

Port Marine Safety Code

The Port Marine Safety Code was published on 13 March 2000 (ISBN: 1 85112 365 2) and is £10

The publications home page contains information on how and where you can obtain publications produced by the Department for Transport.

NB: No Bulletin was issued in March 2001.

Assessment criteria

A national occupational standard for pilots has been accredited. BPIT have also used DfEE funding to set up a group which has derived from the standard a model syllabus for maritime colleges. This is about to be released.

The national occupational standard sets out the competences a pilot requires: the next step is to develop an assessment methodology for deciding whether he has them. This exercise will include identifying the extent to which other qualifications (especially a master's certificate) demonstrate pilot competences.

Some initial work is about to be undertaken by the Department, with advice from harbour authorities, with the object of developing a proposal for wider discussion in the near future.

This part of the project has a bearing on the question of developing a national qualification, which is a longer-term objective. The Department's first objective is to complete implementation of MAIB's recommendations following the Sea Empress grounding.

BPIT has agreement in principle for QCA funding for the remaining standards envisaged in the Port Marine Safety Code and will resume preparatory work as soon as contracts are agreed: the aim is to develop national occupational standards for harbour masters and port control/VTS.

Guide to Best Practice

The Department has collated comments on the 2nd draft, and these are now being reviewed, and maintains its aim of producing a 3rd (and final) draft by the end of May. Quite a few examples of good practice have been submitted, but predominantly from a few authorities. Further discussion is needed on whether they do represent good practice and whether others are needed for representativeness.

Representative Bodies

A (half-day) meeting of representative bodies is being convened in the second half of June. It will be invited to consider three items:

• the form of any monitoring of harbour authorities at the 30th June 'waypoint' for implementing the Code;
• progress with national occupational standards;
• the 3rd draft of the Guide to Good Practice, and in particular the sufficiency of examples.

Legislation

The Minister for Shipping (Keith Hill) announced (on 3 May) that the previously announced proposed Safety Bill will include port-related items. He said:

"The third group [of marine-related items] make some improvements to the powers harbour authorities have to regulate marine safety so as to help them to implement the Port Marine Safety Code, which was developed after the grounding of the Sea Empress in Milford Haven in 1996. We are also including new procedures enabling a harbour authority to be wound-up on safety grounds or to relinquish pilotage powers, both of which would save having to promote private legislation."

It is proposed to publish the draft Bill in the usual way later in the year. Draft Bills are accompanied by a consultation paper, and explanatory Memorandum and Regulatory Impact Assessment.