Inspection, Certification, and Survey Procedures
Domain 6 tests how compliance is proved and kept alive: which survey falls due when, which certificate it supports, and what a port State control officer does when the paper trail breaks.
The harmonised regime (HSSC)
- Surveys: initial, annual, intermediate (second or third anniversary), renewal at five years, plus additional surveys after damage or modification.
- Windows: annual surveys run from three months before to three months after the anniversary date; miss the window and the certificate loses validity.
- Class surveys: annual, intermediate, and the five-year special survey, with two bottom inspections in dry dock.
- Certificates: Cargo Ship Safety Construction, Safety Equipment, Safety Radio, Load Line, IOPP, SMC and DOC, Tonnage, MLC, Ballast Water Management, AFS.
Extensions and PSC
An extension of up to three months is available only where the ship is not in the port where she is to be surveyed, and it must be endorsed. PSC uses clear grounds to escalate from a routine visit to a detailed inspection; deficiencies are coded, and detainable ones stop the ship until cleared.
Worked example
A Cargo Ship Safety Equipment Certificate expires on 15 September. The renewal survey is completed on 20 July. Under HSSC the new certificate may run from 20 July with expiry harmonised to 15 September five years on, preserving the anniversary date. The next annual survey is then due in the window 15 June to 15 December of the following year.
Traps
- Treating a class certificate as a substitute for a statutory one.
- Forgetting that an extension must be endorsed and can shift the anniversary date.
- Confusing a condition of class (clear by a stated date) with a recommendation (advisory).
- Assuming a certificate stays valid while a renewal survey is outstanding.