ICS has published the latest Flag State Performance Table for 2020-2021 which finds that many of the largest flag states – including the Marshall Islands, Hong Kong (China), Singapore as well as the Bahamas and Cyprus– continue to perform to an exceptionally high standard, with traditional flags and open registers performing equally well.
Isle of Man Ship Registry became the first Flag State to launch a seafarer welfare app, named as “Crew Matters”, as it has just gone live and is available to approximately 10.000 seafarers.
Paris MoU issued its official report on the 2019 Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Emergency Systems and Procedures. A total of 48 ships were detained as a direct result of the CIC.
The Isle of Man Ship Registry has become the first flag state to join the Getting to Zero Coalition, an industry-led alliance working towards decarbonization of global shipping.
While the maritime authorities have the main responsibility of ensuring the effectiveness of the flag States’ monitoring and reporting systems for human rights issues, these mechanisms are not always sufficiently implemented, a new report by British charity Human Rights at Sea shows.
The Paris MoU Committee approved the 2019 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flag States and Recognized Organizations (ROs). A total of 70 flags are in this year’s list, including 41 on the “White List”, 16 on the “Grey List” and 13 on the “Black list”. These lists are in effect from 1st July 2020.
A new regulatory amendment will allow bareboat registration in and deregistration from the Norwegian International Ship Register (NIS) and the Norwegian Ordinary Ship Register (NOR), making ship registration in Norway “more adaptive and internationally competitive”.
USCG issued its 2019 Flag State Control Domestic Annual Report, summarizing statistics regarding inspections and enforcement of regulations on US-flagged vessels. The number of vessel inspections increased by 1,423 and the average number of deficiencies identified per inspection increased from 1.26 to 1.48 in 2019.
In its annual PSC report, Tokyo MoU presented the flag states included in the White, Grey and Black list respectively. The list indicates levels of performance of flags over a three-year rolling period (2017-2019).
The Liberian Registry announced implementation of the first ever remote Annual Safety Inspection (ASI) aboard their ships, in a bid to adjust to the COVID-19 disruptions. The Registry successfully completed the first remote ASI this past week.
