UK Ports Industry Welcomes Important Safety Code Update

[By: British Ports Association]

The British Ports Association has welcomed the updates to the UK Government’s important safety guidance for ports in the refreshed Port & Marine Facilities Safety Code, which was published today.

The Code and accompanying Guide to Good Practice provide ports with a definitive resource to manage and asses risks in the marine safety environment within their areas of competence. The documents have been updated in a dynamic partnership between the UK government and the ports industry and cover all types of port, harbour and marine operation.

Commenting on the update, Richard Ballantyne, the Chief Executive of the British Ports Association (BPA), which represents over 400 ports and facilities around UK, collectively facilitating 86% of the country’s seaborne trade, said: “We welcome this important update and support the Government’s drive to increase safety standards across the ports sector. Safety is essential to our industry and the Port & Marine Facilities Safety Code provides an essential framework for the landside and marine interface, which ports oversee. The Code and associated Guide have been developed in an extensive partnership between government and industry and it will be important for our sector to embrace this latest update. This has evolved over the last two decades, resulting in a world leading resource for port operators. We look forward to promoting the Code to ports, harbours and a wide range of marine facilities around the UK and beyond.”

Richard Ballantyne, Chief Executive at the British Ports Association

The Code was originally conceived following a review of maritime safety by Lord Donaldson in the late 1990s and it has evolved into a definitive suite of policies and guidelines for all types of ports. Key features include the role of duty holders at ports, the appointment of an independent designated person to review safety procedures, risk assessments and the development of systems and plans. The Maritime Coastguard Agency is tasked with overseeing compliance with the Code and carries out a number of health check audits at ports around the UK. The list of ports who signalled their compliance during the last exercise is here. 

In this latest update, as well as working with ports, the Government has increased to emphasis on third party operated marine terminals and facilities either within or outside a port authority. There are also a number of updates to other guidelines and links to recent MAIB recommendations particularly within the Guide to Good Practice.

To help promote the Code the BPA runs training briefings for duty holders and industry representatives and will be continuing to champion the principles of the important resources across the UK ports sector.