UK hints at ban on unsafe ships

UK hints at ban on unsafe ships

UK hints at ban on unsafe ships

The UK may push for an international ban on vessels flying flags with poor safety records entering major ports, shipping minister Keith Hill hinted yesterday. Mr Hill was speaking at the London session of the International Commission on Shipping, the independent international inquiry into the problem of sub-standard shipping. While his carefully worded speech seemed deliberately designed not to offer concrete policy commitments, his comments left little doubt that the issue is now being considered by the UK. Mr Hill said his remarks were not aimed at flags of convenience as such, nor at those administrations that were making efforts to improve their standards. However, some flags were more interested in money than quality, he argued. Mr Hill asked rhetorically whether sanctions against such registries should be considered, aiming to "deprive substandard shipping of trading havens anywhere in the world". Other contributors to the debate expressed a wide range of opinions on how standards can best be improved. Jim Davis of the International Maritime Industries Forum argued that it was difficult to identify substandard shipping. Older vessels can be good ships, and newer vessels bad ones, depending on maintenance. Ships rarely fail, and most accidents are attributable to human error. Draconian age limits are not the answer, with self-regulation the preferable solution. At bottom, shipping must become profitable again. "With all the good will in the world, we are not going to get very far unless there is the money to deal with [safety]", argued Mr Davies. "We cannot have safety at nil cost."

Suffering

David Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation, which provided initial funding for the commission, argued that shipping's safety problem is getting worse and that seafarers are suffering. While some flags of convenience were better than others, the FoC system as a whole makes for lack of transparency and a tendency to pass the buck. With the right to operate a registry comes certain responsibilities, Mr Cockroft maintained. " A flag state has to be able to exercise jurisdiction over vessels that fly its flag", he said. Brian Orrell, general secretary of British officers' union Numast, raised such possibilities as the issue of licences to operate a shipping company, or the statutory right for masters to refuse to sail unsafe vessels. He said he could not understand why good people in the industry opposed such measures when they had nothing to be afraid of. "What are the good doing to stick it to the bad?" Mr Orrell wondered. Julian Parker of the Nautical Institute said that the level of observance of collision regulations was "pretty appalling", but added that he did not know the reason why. David Taylor of the International Underwriting Association knocked suggestions that insurers should offer discounts to companies with very good safety records. It cannot be right to reward people simply for doing what they are supposed to do, he went on to point out.

David Osler

Lloyd's Casualty Week, Vol. 321 No. 9, 24 November 2000