Fewer inspections for Danish ships
Denmark is among the flag States whose ships may be subject to fewer port State inspections than today from the turn of the year. The reason is new inspection rules rewarding the great efforts made by Danish shipping to ensure a high quality all way round.
Danish shipping has focused on quality shipping for many years. This focus adds value in many ways and now also in relation to port State inspections. From the turn of the year, ships flying the Danish flag with good results from previous inspections can, thus, avoid ordinary biannual port State inspections and, instead, be subject to inspections only every third year. However, ships with more annotations will continue to be checked every six months as today. A middle group will be checked at annual intervals.
The reason is the so-called New Inspection Region (NIR) on port State control. The regime is introduced as a part of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on port State control (Paris MoU), which is a cooperation on port State control between the European countries and, among others, Russia, Norway and Canada. The new regulations reward flag States whose ships very seldom have problems in connection with inspections or are detained because the conditions on board are not in order.
That ships flying the Danish flag may be subject to fewer port State inspections than many other ships is due to the fact that Danish shipping has one of the most modern and quality-minded fleets worldwide. Thus, Denmark ranked third on the Paris MoU so-called white list in 2009. The list provides an overview of how well the ships of various maritime nations do in port State inspections in the Paris MoU region.
Director General of the Danish Maritime Authority Andreas Nordseth is pleased that Danish shipping is rewarded for its efforts.
“Health, safety and the environment are three of the keywords of quality shipping. And within all three areas, Denmark is far advanced. Therefore, I am pleased that we reap the full benefit when maritime nations striving to ensure a high level of quality are rewarded in the future”, says Andreas Nordseth.
Source: Danish Maritime Authority