Amendments To Port State Control Regime

In order to transpose EU Directive 2013/38/EC into national law, the government has amended the Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Law 2011¹ and issued a revised Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Notification.²

The amendments incorporate the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 into the list of conventions whose implementation is checked by port state control and advise the competent authority:

• to accept the maritime labour certificate and the declaration of maritime labour compliances as proof of compliance with the requirements of the Maritime Labour Convention; and
• to adopt the onshore seafarer complaint-handling procedures prescribed in the convention.

The amendments also incorporate the International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on Ships 2001 and the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage 2001, and stipulate that ships flying the flag of a state that is not party to the convention must not be treated more favourably than ships flying the flag of a state that is.

For information and guidance a consolidated English-language version of the amended Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Law and a translation of the revised Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Notification are available on the website of the Department of Merchant Shipping; the original Greek texts are the definitive versions.

Footnotes

^{1 Law 95(I), amended by the Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) (Amendment) Law, Law 155(I) of 2015, PI 308/2011.}

^{2 The Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Notification of 2015, PI 411/2015.}