UK amends Fire Protection: Small Ships Regulations 1998

UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency has issued the Merchant Shipping Notice (MSN) amending the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Small Ships) Regulations 1998: Exemptions.

This notice has been issued on December 8th, 2022, and is addressed to all domestic passenger shipowners, recognised organisations, shipbuilders, shiprepairers, ship masters and surveyors.

This Notice amends MSN 1670(M) to reflect the changes brought about by the Merchant Shipping (Safety Standards for Passenger Ships on Domestic Voyages (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2022.

The Notice also corrects one error in Schedule 1 of the original version of MSN 1670(M).

1. Introduction / background

1.1 This MSN forms an integral part of the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Small Ships) Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1011) as amended, and the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Large Ships) Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1012) as amended, and is given statutory force by virtue of the reference to it in those regulations.

1.2 As a result of the Merchant Shipping (Safety Standards for Passenger Ships on Domestic Voyages) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2022, which implemented legislative changes arising from the review of standards for older domestic passenger vessels, the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Small Ships) Regulations 1998 have been amended.

As a result, the extent to which the amended Regulations apply to domestic passenger ships constructed before 26th May 1965 has changed.

1.3 This MSN Amendment makes changes to the Table in Schedule 1 which relates to fire protection exemptions for small ships constructed before 26th May 1965.

This MSN also corrects an error in the title of one of the columns in that Table which read “Large Ships” instead of “Small Ships”.