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The Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) announced today that 11 foreign ships were under detention in UK ports during June 2003 after failing port state control safety inspection.
Latest monthly figures show that 6 foreign ships were detained in UK ports during June 2003 along with 5 other ships still under detention from previous months. The overall rate of detentions compared with inspections carried out over the last 12 months is 7.2% which is a decrease of 0.3% on the detention rate to May.
The ships detained in May included:-
- A Korean General Cargo Vessel of 2029 GT in Goole for 3 days due to overloading and MF radio installation inoperative - A St Vincent and Grenadine Bulk Carrier of 3961 GT in Grimsby, still under detention, 28 deficiencies recorded before inspection suspended. Among detainable deficiencies were no valid statutory certificates, fire detection system inoperative, port lifeboat drive coupling broken, breakdown of Safety Management System on board. - A Maltese Oil Tanker of 20749 GT at Belfast for 4 days with 28 recorded deficiencies including poor abandon ship drill, lifeboats not operationally ready, lifeboat davit rollers seized, quick closing valves leaking fuel when shut and failure of safety management system.
The list details the name, flag state, owner or operator and classification society of each detained ship together with the summary of the main grounds for detention. (A copy of the list is attached to hard copies of this press notice).
Note to Editors 1. In response to one of the recommendations of Lord Donaldson''s Inquiry into the prevention of pollution from merchant shipping and in compliance with the EU Directive on Port State Control (95/21/EC as amended), the Maritime and Coastguard agency (MCA) publishes full details of the foreign flagged vessels detained in UK ports each month.
2. Inspections of foreign flagged ships in UK ports are undertaken by surveyors from the MCA. Where a ship is found to be deficient or lacks the required documentation, MCA surveyors can take a range of actions leading to detention in serious cases. The UK is part of a regional agreement on port state control known as the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MOU) and information on all ships that are inspected is held centrally in an electronic database known as SIReNaC. This allows the ships of flags with poor detention records to be targeted for future inspection.
3. Detained ships have to satisfy surveyors that remedial work has been carried out before they are allowed to leave port.
4. When applicable the list includes those passenger craft prevented form operating under the provisions of the EU Directive on Mandatory Surveys for the safe operation of regular Ro-Ro ferry and highspeed passenger craft services (1999/35/EU).
5. The Paris MOU Advisory Board decided on 28th January 2002 to take account of the recommendations of the IMO sub-committee on STCW. If a seafarer''s documentation does not comply with STCW 95 then a letter of warning will be issued and details will be published on the Paris MOU Internet site. Letters of Warning will be issued until 31 July 2002. From the beginning of August a ship to which a letter of warning has been issued will be subject to priority inspection and may be detained if the documentation of the crew does not comply with STCW95.
Notes on the list of detentions
Full details of the ship The table shows ship''s name, the flag state and the ship''s International Maritime Organization (IMO) number which is unchanging throughout the ship''s life and uniquely identifies it.
Company The company shown in the vessel''s Safety Management Certificate or the party otherwise believed to be responsible for the safety of the ship at the time of inspection.
Classification Society The table shows the Classification Society responsible for classing the ship and not necessarily the party issuing and/or carrying out surveys for certificates relevant to the defect found.
Defects The table gives a summary of the main grounds for detention and includes information where the ship has been released to sail to another port for repairs.
Press releases and further information about the Agency is available on the Web at http://www.mcga.gov.uk
