Paris MoU: Guidance on Detention and Action Taken

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MoU) has released the Guidance on Detention and Action Taken.

General

When identifying deficiencies, the Port State Control Officer (PSCO) is responsible for the following actions:

• Determining the appropriate course of action.
• Ensuring confidence in the rectification of identified issues.
• Evaluating whether detention is warranted.

In principle, all deficiencies should be addressed before the ship's departure. However, it is not necessary for the PSCO to personally verify the rectification of each deficiency.

Objectives and Purpose

This section offers guidance on the grounds for detention and outlines the use of standardized action codes related to individual deficiencies and PSC inspections, as detailed in Annex 1. These action codes are categorized as follows:

1. Deficiency Action Taken
2. Inspection Action Taken
3. Reporting Action Taken

Application

Actions taken are assigned specific code numbers, as further elaborated below. This coding system simplifies the documentation of actions taken during inspections conducted manually.

Possible actions to be considered include:

• Requesting additional information
• Consulting with the Flag and/or Recognized Organization (R.O.)
• Immediate or future rectification
• Detention
• Permitting the ship to proceed to a repair port

While standard actions exist, PSOs have some flexibility to demand non-standard actions, indicated as "master instructed to…".

This alternative should only be employed when standard actions are deemed unsuitable.

Overuse of this option can lead to inconsistencies in actions taken and render statistical data less specific.

Relevant Documentation

Refer to Section 3.4, 3.6, and 3.8 of the Paris MoU Annex 9, as well as Section 2 of the Paris MoU PSCC Instruction, for guidance on inspection types and guidelines for PSOs regarding the ISM code.

This document was published on 1 July 2023.

For more information, please see the document below (available only to subscribers):

Guidance on Detention and Action Taken

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