Tag: GUARDCON

GUARDCON contract for the employment of security guards on ships by BIMCO Over 70 delegates gathered in London last Thursday to participate in what proved to be a highly interactive day-long session to discuss the core issues and practicalities of using the GUARDCON contract for the employment of security guards on ships. The seminar was moderated by Soren Larsen, Deputy Secretary General of BIMCO. Among the audience were representatives of the end users of the contract - ship owners and private maritime security companies - as well as those that advise them - the P&I clubs and law firms. The seminar provided a unique opportunity to hear from those actually responsible for drafting GUARDCON what considerations and issues had been taken into account.The morning session was given over to detailed presentations on the key provisions of GUARDCON. The two lawyers from the drafting group, Elinor Dautlich of Holman Fenwick Willan and Stephen Askins of Ince & Co, outlined the thinking behind the clauses dealing with obligations, responsibilities and liabilities, while Chris South of the West of England P&I Club (who represented the International Group on the drafting team) explained the all-important insurance provisions.In the afternoon, delegates heard from three speakers ...

On 14 June, London BIMCO has recently published the much anticipated GUARDCON standard contract for the employment of security guards on vessels. This brand new contract has been developed to provide ship owners and private maritime security companies (PMSC) with a clearly worded and comprehensive standard contract to govern the employment and use of security guards, with or without firearms, on board merchant vessels. BIMCO has also published Guidance on the Rules for the Use of Force (RUF) to accompany GUARDCON which will undoubtedly be of great assistance to owners and private maritime security companies when drawing up and agreeing RUF for their own purposes.According to BIMCO Deputy Secretary General, Søren Larsen, "GUARDCON has been drafted in just a little over three months by a small group of experts drawn from ship owners, underwriters, P&I Clubs and lawyers with first-hand experience of working with contracts for security services. The speed at which GUARDCON has been drafted is a considerable credit to the drafting group whose members devoted many long hours free of charge to the project."BIMCO's Chief Officer Legal and Contractual Affairs, Grant Hunter said "In response to ship owners' increasing demand for security services, an ever growing number of ...

PMSC accreditation programme Several companies have now passed the initial stages of SAMI's international private maritime security company (PMSC) accreditation programme. SAMI, the Security Association for the Maritime Industry, created a standard and mechanism to accredit companies within the global membership, and the three companies which initially volunteered to act as a pilot group have now been confirmed as having been successful.Those companies are MIRIS International, Securewest International and Spirit Security Services. Each of them underwent a stringent due diligence check during Stage 1 of the SAMI programme.The checks applied to a range of different areas of the companies' operations to ensure compliance with a range of minimum standards. The checks are in line with guidelines issued by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and ensure that legal, compliance and quality issues have been adequately addressed.MIRIS International delivers key maritime security services to ship owners and managers. The company has established a reputation for attention to detail and is fully compliant with UK and overseas-applicable firearms laws and licensing requirements.MIRIS undertakes comprehensive recruitment, vetting and training of its consultants, including mandatory attendance at the company's maritime security operative course and maritime firearms training course. All operational services are supported by MIRIS ...

The first company to gain insurance which complies with BIMCO's Guardcon International maritime security specialist Sea Marshals Limited is pleased to announce it is the first company to gain insurance which complies with BIMCO's new Guardcon standards.Launched this week, BIMCO's Guardcon provides an industry standard contract for the employment of security guards on ships. In particular it addresses concerns over the relationship between the Master and the Head of the Security team on board a vessel.Having demonstrated its compliance with the new Guardcon standards, Sea Marshals has become the first security company to obtain an insurance policy which complies with the new requirements. The company signed documents for the policy at the end of last week to ensure it was already in compliance with Guardcon before its industry launch.Thomas Jakobsson, Chief of Operations for Sea Marshals said: "Sea Marshals has worked hard to make sure we comply with Guardcon. Guardcon gives the whole industry a standard contract when using guards onboard ships. It specifies many things that a security provider has to live up to and has set a minimum standard for insurance. This 'minimum standard' is much higher than most security providers currently offer but we are pleased to ...

Contract for the employment of security guards on vessels BIMCO is pleased to announce the publication of the GUARDCON standard contract for the employment of security guards on vessels. This brand new contract has been developed to provide ship owners and private maritime security companies (PMSC) with a clearly worded and comprehensive standard contract to govern the employment and use of security guards, with or without firearms, on board merchant vessels. While BIMCO would not like to see the use of armed security guards on ships becoming institutionalised, it recognises that while the industry awaits a more permanent long term solution, armed guards currently provide an effective deterrent to piracy attacks.BIMCO's Chief Officer Legal and Contractual Affairs, Grant Hunter said "In response to ship owners' increasing demand for security services, an ever growing number of private maritime security companies have entered the market to meet that demand. In the absence of a standard contract for these services, ship owners and their P&I Clubs are currently faced with the difficult and time consuming task of assessing large numbers of contracts from these security companies, all with varying terms and conditions. GUARDCON's objective is to create a contractual benchmark for the employment ...

Available from March 26 A new standardised contract between shipowners and private maritime security companies will be launched by BIMCO later this month.The Guardcon hopes to provide clarity on key issues such as therelationship between the master and the security team leader on board.The drafting sub-committee will meet on March 16 to finalise the draft, and thenan electronic version of the contract will be available on its website from March 26.The relationship and interactions between the master and the security team has long needed clarifying. In essence the master is in charge throughout. However in the event of a threat of piracy the security team leader will inform the master that they are invoking the rules for the use of force. Each member of the security team then has sole responsibility for any decision taken to use force.Even then, if the master perceives there to be a risk of safety, he also has the right to order the team to stop shooting.This should give masters the confidence that they are always in ultimate control, but give the security personnel the latitude to make the very difficult decisions that they have to take during an attack. Source: Neptune Maritime Security

Final draft of the GUARDCON contract by BIMCO The final draft of the GUARDCON contract is now in the hands of BIMCO's 60-strong Documentary Committee which is ultimately responsible for the vetting and approval for publication of all new and revised BIMCO contracts and clauses. The Committee's primary task is to assess whether the draft agreement for the employment of security guards on vessels meets the standard expected of a BIMCO contract.This is the third and final phase of development. It follows two months of intense drafting work by a specialist Sub-committee with legal, insurance, P&I and ship operation expertise. The second phase involved consultation on the draft with several reputable international private maritime security companies and a number of leading marine insurance underwriters. The whole development process has also been followed closely by the International Group of P&I Clubs.BIMCO's Documentary Committee have been given until 7 March to review the draft contract. After that the GUARDCON Sub-committee will reconvene to consider any comments received and then prepare the draft for the approval for publication by the full Committee. Depending on the volume and extent of comments received, this means that GUARDCON may be available to the industry during the ...

The new contract, which will be known as GUARDCON At a meeting in London on Tuesday 6 December, preliminary discussions took place to agree the scope and structure of a new standard contract for the employment of armed guards on merchant ships. The new contract, which will be known as GUARDCON, will offer shipowners a well thought through agreement crafted by a team of shipowners, lawyers, underwriters and P&I Club personnel, all of whom have considerable experience developing and working with this type of agreement.Two major law firms are involved in the project: Ince & Co. and Holman Fenwick Willan, both of whom have experience representing security firms and shipowners in this type of contracts. The insurance aspect is an item at the top of the agenda on this project, and the underwriting and P&I club input is invaluable. BIMCO's ultimate objective in developing this standard contract is to provide an agreement that clearly sets out the responsibilities and liabilities of the parties, particularly in respect of the potential use of lethal force on board the vessel. It is essential that shipowners should have the comfort of a standard contract that they can use safe in the knowledge that it ...