Risk-based Port State inspections

The proposed legislation for increased port state inspections within the European Union’s Third Maritime Safety Package was accepted in 2008. Currently 25% of ships from a given register calling in ports of a given country must be inspected. Because of the nature of the Dutch fleet –a major proportion of which consists of short sea vessels travelling within Europe and whose crew are fairly fluent in English– its ships are subject to a much higher frequency of inspection than ships under other flags of quality. Port states’ different interpretations of the criteria (specifically in relation to the International Safety Management Code, International Ship & Port Facility Security Code and crew-related matters) are particularly responsible for more port state inspections and therefore more detentions. The current 25% norm is expected to be replaced by risk-based inspections in 2011 and over 2010 the Paris MOU will implementing this new arrangement step by step. The KVNR will be emphatic in its request of the Dutch government that a high ranking will be directly linked to an appropriate frequency of inspection in the yet to be determined details for a system of risk-based inspections.