Piracy Legislation Does Not Guarantee Proper Planning

A proposed change to the Danish Seafarers’ legislation will mean that companies are mandated to prepare for a hijacking situation beforehand. The Danish-based maritime security intelligence company Risk Intelligence believes seafarers and shipping companies will benefit from having efficient contingency plans. But having a plan to meet legislation is not enough. Many contingency plans are never updated or rehearsed.

“The ability to actually execute the plan is the key. Such a plan is only efficient when revised and rehearsed on a regular basis. Both planning and execution should involve the individual stakeholders in person in order to practice teamwork and identify deficiencies in the plan”, says Henrik Ehlers Kragh, Corporate Risk Projects Manager in Risk Intelligence.

He points out that such a plan should include all internal and external stakeholders and describe their roles, responsibilities and practical procedures in detail. Such a contingency plan for a hijacking situation will speed up internal emergency procedures and subsequently negotiations.

“No plan can include all possible scenarios and no matter how good the plan is, it will need to be adapted to the situation at hand. Knowledge of the plan, of the stakeholders and of the procedures will speed up the emergency team’s ability to adapt the plan to the incident and subsequently make the company ready for negotiations faster”, says Henrik Ehlers Kragh.

He adds that legislation on this matter may be a good way to ensure a standard level of formal preparation.