New rules to protect passengers on vessels
Bringing the safety of older passenger ships into line with modern standards to ensure "no compromise on safety".
New regulations in the United Kingdom will require older vessel standards to be brought up to an equivalent level of safety as new ones.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has worked on The Ship Safety - Merchant Shipping (Safety Standards for Passenger Ships on Domestic Voyages) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (“Grandfather Rights”) which implements the new rules.
Among a number of new safety regulations such as carrying lifesaving equipment, fire detection and powered pumps, ships will have to comply with damage stability rules – also known as survivability – which will make sure that in the event of an accident, vessels can stay afloat long enough for all passengers to be evacuated.
These regulations are being implemented to prevent the repeat of accidents such as the Marchioness disaster in 1989, where fifty-one people died. The resulting inquiries and recommendations have underpinned the development of maritime safety legislation to improve the safety of all passengers throughout the country, and the changes announced today continue this work.
Operators have at least two years from the legislation coming into force to comply with the new regulations.
Find out more about the changes in the MCA's associated guidance documents:
- MSN 1699 Amendment 3 - The Merchant Shipping (Passenger Ship Construction: Ships of Classes III to VI(A)) Regulations 1998
- MGN 627 Guidance on changes and available exemptions against requirements introduced by the Merchant Shipping Regulations 2022
- MSN 1670 Amendment to Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Small Ships) Regulations 1998: Exemptions
- MIN 682 Domestic Passenger Vessels: Information on risk assessment to support application for exemption from damage stability requirements
First published 10 January 2023