IMO CONFIRMS PROGRESS ON SHIP AND PORT SECURITY MEASURES

IMO CONFIRMS PROGRESS ON SHIP AND PORT SECURITY MEASURES    The International Maritime Organization said it has completed preparations before the finalization of a raft of new international security regulations by government officials.
   The so-called intersessional working group on maritime security of the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee met last week (Sept. 9-13) to discuss the proposed ship and port security measures. Those proposals will be presented to, and virtually certainly adopted by, a “diplomatic conference” of government officials in December.
   The governments conference later this year “is expected to adopt a completely new regulatory regime designed to prevent ships and their cargoes becoming the targets of terrorist activities,” the IMO said.
   As announced previously, the proposed regulations include a mixture of compulsory and recommended measures. The new measures are centered around a proposed International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, Part A of which is expected to be made mandatory through amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS). More than 98 percent of the world’s international shipping fleet operates under the IMO’s SOLAS convention. Part B of the Code has been drafted as guidance material and is recommendatory.
   The IMO said that the overall objectives of the security code are to establish an international framework between governments and industry “to detect security threats and take preventive measures against security incidents affecting ships or port facilities used in international trade.”
   It will establish different risk levels, and the government responsible for a port or ship in an area “should determine and set the appropriate security level.” Security levels 1, 2 and 3 will correspond to normal, medium and high threat situations, respectively.
   “The security level creates a link between the ship and the port facility, since it triggers the implementation of appropriate security measures for the ship and for the port facility,” the IMO said.
   At security level 1, for instance, it is envisaged that the activities to be carried out aboard ship would include the following: ensuring the performance of all ship security duties; monitoring restricted areas to ensure that only authorized persons have access; controlling access to the ship; monitoring of deck areas and areas surrounding the ship; controlling the embarkation of persons and their effects; supervising the handling of cargo and ship’s stores; and ensuring that port-specific security communication is readily available.
   Security level 1 would require a number of actions within the port facility, among them ensuring the performance of all port facility security duties; monitoring restricted areas to ensure that only authorized persons have access; controlling access to the port facility; monitoring of the port facility, including mooring areas; supervising the handling of cargo and ships’ stores and ensuring that security communication is readily available.
   The IMO security code will require shipping companies to appoint security officers at company level and for individual ships, and for each ship to carry an approved ship security plan on board. The code will also say that port facilities must appoint security officers.
   Aside from the provisions of the security code, last week’s IMO meeting also worked on revisions to the SOLAS Convention that would address control requirements and security alert devices to be carried aboard ships.
   On Monday, Thomas Allan, chairman of the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO, told a conference of the International Union of Marine Insurance in New York that the expense of security will be “an increased burden on all sectors of the industry.”
   William O’Neil, secretary general of the IMO, has urged governments not to introduce separate anti-terrorist regulations before the diplomatic conference in December. The IMO said that it has adopted the new common international standards on security “in the shortest possible time.”