Six areas have been highlighted as requiring attention in the latest Health Check Trends for the Port Marine Safety Code (PMSC) according to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

The latest Health Check Trends for the Port Marine Safety Code (PMSC) report has been published by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The annual report highlights areas found to require improvement as well as offering examples of good practice.

This year’s report summarises the findings from eleven PMSC health checks made at three private, four municipal and four trust ports by the MCA during 2017.

The MCA note that many of the issues identified have appeared in previous Health Check Trend Reports. Six areas have been identified with issues that should be a particular focus for improvement. These include:

Duty Holder – lack of awareness of roles and responsibilities under the PMSC; the Duty Holder incorrectly identified; lack of appropriate training; inadequate reporting procedures; unpublished safety plans.

Risk assessments – dry and wet risks incorrectly being assessed independently; improper hazard ranking and use of the ALARP principle; failure to review risk assessments post-accident/incident and lack of port community engagement.

Marine Safety Management System (MSMS) – operational procedures are not fully integrated with the MSMS; inappropriate/absent internal and external auditing; the MSMS is generally incomplete; emergency plan and navigational risk assessment missing from MSMS; staff awareness and undefined roles and responsibilities.

Designated Person – no formal DP identification; not fully independent from operational responsibility and a lack of clear information exchange with the Duty Holder.

Duties and powers/ legislation – Harbour Byelaws and General Directions are not periodically reviewed.

Consultation and information dissemination – lack of consultation during risk assessments; no user group appointed to help build a consensus on safe navigation; lack of marine/ navigational guidance to users and the ALRS V6 entry observed as out of date.

ABPmer has observed similar common issues when providing external auditing for ports and harbours, particularly with the harmonising of operational procedures and the MSMS.

The Health Check Trends’ best practice advice is to align operational procedures to the PMSC and the Guide to Good Practice. Often we have seen the procedures have changed, but the MSMS remains out of date. In order for the integration process to be as effective as possible it should also be regularly updated to match the actual procedure on the ground.

Similarly to the Health Check Trends report, another common issue we have observed is the lack of formal PMSC training for the Duty Holder. For most organisations, the role of Duty Holder is undertaken by a management team or Harbour Board who are collectively and individually accountable. Understanding Duty Holder roles and responsibilities is central to ensuring good governance, and ultimately, compliance with the requirements of the Code.

The full Health Check Trends report can be downloaded from GOV.UK.