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Port Marine Safety Code

The Port Marine Safety Code (the Code) applies to all harbour authorities in the UK that have statutory powers and duties. It has been developed with help from a wide range of interested parties in the ports and shipping industry. The Code was revised most recently in November 2016.

The Code, linked below is for “duty holders”, which for Cowes is the Board of Commissioners. The Commissioners are directly accountable for the safety of marine operations in their waters and approaches, with operational responsibility delegated to the Chief Executive, Harbour Master and Deputy Harbour Master.

The Code has been developed to improve safety in UK ports and to enable harbour authorities to manage their marine operations to nationally-agreed standards. The Code provides the standard against which the policies, procedures and performance of harbour authorities can be measured. It also describes the role of board members, officers and key personnel in relation to safety of navigation and summarises the main statutory duties and powers of harbour authorities. As well as complying with these duties and powers, the authority must develop an effective marine safety management system based on formal risk assessment. When fully implemented, the Code should reduce the risk of incidents occurring in harbour waters and provide some protection for the duty holder if an incident does occur.

The ‘Designated Person’ for Cowes Harbour Commission (CHC), Martin Phipps, undertakes an internal audit of CHC’s compliance with the code annually, whilst an external audit is conducted every three years, a link to CHC’s latest audit report is below. Should you feel that CHC is not in compliance with The Code, Martin can be contacted by emailing chc@cowes.co.uk.

CHC is also required to provide the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) with a statement confirming compliance with the code every three years. You can read CHC’s letter to the MCA here