By
Susan Parker |
The United Kingdom Maritime and Coastguard Agency (UK MCA) has a number of roles including operating a search and rescue (SAR) response. “Current modernisation will mean HM Coastguard’s capability is world class,” says Philip Naylor, director of maritime safety and standards at the MCA. “This is a source of comfort for ships and passengers, knowing that someone is watching out for them,” he says. A previous long-term employee of Carnival UK, he explains that the company used the MCA mostly for medevacs, particularly for ships approaching from the Atlantic. “The Coastguard did a fabulous job providing a one-stop shop and coordinating the entire problem so the cruise line didn’t have to do much.”
The MCA plays an international coordinating role in SAR. In fact, the Coastguard at Falmouth often receives calls for assistance from ships of all flags all over the world and then works with other international partners to coordinate the rescue effort. The organisation also acts as the UK’s maritime safety regulator. “We take international regulations coming out of the IMO or, for example, Brussels and make them relevant to the UK, putting them into UK law.”
The Agency has a role in influencing those regulations, largely through work done at the IMO. Over the last two years the MCA has seized the opportunity presented by the UK Government’s Red Tape Challenge (RTC). This centres on doing away with regulations and providing industry with greater scope to regulate itself. Naylor says this is not easy to achieve in an international context. “Shipping needs to comply with international legislation to trade freely around the world.”
Two really important things came out of the RTC, according to Naylor. He says that the industry has worked closely with Government to develop the best workable solution. “In future, hopefully we will not spend time rewriting Convention texts into English law.” He cites the Maritime Labour Convention as an example. “The industry has been very keen for us to bring it into force quickly, although that has meant the creation of 12 separate pieces of legislation. In the future we would expect to use a single new regulation with reference to the Convention text.”
Secondly, industry experts were asked to challenge all the UK maritime laws, which has led to a programme of legislative reform that will provide the UK with a modern legislative framework. “This will enable us to engage stakeholders to help develop better legislation. We will work more with codes and guidance to allow industry to regulate itself much more without the need to prescribe every dot and comma.”
In this way, explains Naylor, the MCA plans to be a supportive regulator which helps the shipping industry to do its business successfully and safely. The organisation has a role in the interpretation of regulations so that they can be correctly applied. He mentions that some of the newest ferries that operate from Dover no longer carry lifeboats but are fitted instead with marine evacuation systems (MES). There is a requirement for these to be test deployed although the international regulations are ambiguous about precisely what needs to be tested and how frequently. The MCA has worked very closely with the industry to develop a testing and deployment regime that fulfils the underlying safety requirement without imposing undue burdens on the owners. Naylor comments: “This was a very sensible solution to an issue that could have imposed an unnecessary cost burden without any corresponding improvement in the standard of safety.”
Another area that is of interest to the cruise and ferry sector is that of hydrography. The MCA manages a programme to survey UK waters so that the nautical charts can be kept up to date in line with the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea. Naylor says that there was some concern from Cunard Line, Thomson Cruises and others that some of the areas the ships were passing through and the ports visited did not have up-to-date surveys. “There was a particular concern that hydrography in some of the out-of-the-way areas relied on very old surveys. Modern hydrography can be a real economic enabler because it can allow ships to reach new places which in turn allows those places to open themselves up to tourism – quickly, at very low cost and with minimal environmental impact.”
At the other end of the spectrum is the passenger rights directive that came into force on 18 December 2012. Naylor says: “We have worked out arrangements with the PSA (now CLIA UK) and other bodies around the UK so that we are the UK enforcement authority although we expect the industry to manage these problems for itself. As the regulator we will see it as a failure if the industry cannot take care of its own affairs to such an extent that we need to apply enforcement measures.”
The Government is very keen on this approach and the MCA as an organisation is open to change, with Naylor and chief executive Sir Alan Massey willing to take advantage of a happy alignment of circumstances to adopt a reformist agenda. One thing that is not changing, however, is the breadth and depth of professional knowledge and competence among MCA staff, particularly in its team of surveyors and policy officials.
The agency worked very closely with P&O Ferries on Safe Return to Port (SRtP) for Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France. Naylor is full of praise for the company: “Their commitment has resulted in the way SRtP should work and should look. I think they have set the standard. It is hugely impressive and has ended up in world-leading SRtP capability.”
Work has taken place with Princess Cruises also. “As a maritime administration we are very proud of our technical competency,” remarks Naylor. “Many other maritime administrations around the world have delegated this to class societies, whereas we have maintained it and continue to hone our skills, particularly in relation to cruise ships and ferries. The industry is often at the leading edge of development and we know it relies upon high standards.”