EMSA published a practice guide on ship recycling inspections in order to assist the Member States and their designated inspectors, including reference document that provides both technical information and procedural guidance thus contributing to harmonised implementation and enforcement of the provisions of the SRR and the PSC Directive.
The aim of the regulation is to prevent, reduce, minimise and, to the extent practicable, eliminate accidents, injuries and other adverse effects on human health and the environment caused by ship recycling.
The elimination of accidents in ship-recycling and shipbreaking yards is of a great importance, as the industry always deals with severe and fatal accidents of workers losing their lives because of the difficult environmental conditions.
EMSA highlights that the regulation does not apply to:
- Any warships, naval auxiliary, or other ships owned or operated by a state and used, for the time being, only on government non-commercial service;
- Ships of less than 500 gross tonnage (GT);
- Ships operating throughout their life only in waters subject to the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the Member State whose flag the ship is flying.
The SR inspections shall be initiated under the PSC Directive regime and may also be initiated by a port State outside the scope of the PSC Directive.
The guide offers guidance on inspection onboard the vessel, highlighting that existing EU ships shall only carry a certificate on the inventory of hazardous materials (IC) from 31 December 2020.
Also, it provides recommendations on how to report and complete an inspection.
Moreover, in Detainable SR non-compliances:
The inspector should exercise professional judgement in determining whether to detain the ship until the SR non-compliances are rectified or to allow it to sail with SR non-compliances without unreasonable danger to the safety, health, or the environment, having regard to the particular circumstances of the intended voyage1
Particularly the inspector should assess whether the ship and/or crew is able to:
- prevent pollution of the environment throughout the forthcoming voyage;
- provide safe and healthy conditions on board throughout the forthcoming voyage
A ship should be detained if the detected SR non-compliances are sufficiently serious to merit an inspector returning to the ship to be satisfied that they have been rectified or that the necessary actions to be rectified have been undertaken before the ship sails.
For more information you may click on the PDF herebelow