Grounds for postponing a PSC inspection and the duty to stay in port for an expanded inspection (EU Directive 2009/16)

Say a bulk carrier older than 12 years calls at an EU port. The call is scheduled at night only, and it is not long. Will the ship be inspected. And if an inspection starts, can the ship depart at the scheduled time.

Directive 2009/16 answers the two questions in opposite directions. The earlier provision opens a door for the authority to push an inspection back. The later provision tells a ship eligible for an expanded inspection to stay in port until the inspection is finished. The door that postpones and the door that holds sit side by side in one directive. This article opens them in turn.

A postponement opens only when the next inspection slot falls within 15 days

A Member State may decide to postpone the inspection of a Priority I or Priority II ship in any of the following circumstances:

This is Article 8(1). The Member State is the one that postpones, and the ships covered are Priority I and Priority II ships. The routes are limited to three.

Route of postponement	Condition the provision attaches
(a) Inspection at the next call in the same Member State	Within 15 days of the actual time of departure. No call at any other port in between, apart from ports of the flag State
(b) Inspection at a port of call in another State	Within 15 days. The State where that port lies has agreed in advance to carry out the inspection
(c) Inspection at the same port of call	Within 15 days. Ro-ro passenger ships and high-speed passenger craft on a regular service are included

The 15 days is what all three routes share. A postponement does not erase the inspection. It fixes in advance where the next one happens. Route (b) hands that slot to another State, so prior agreement is the condition, while route (a) works the other way and attaches a condition not to call anywhere else in between.

A postponed inspection and one that never happened land differently on the annual tally

A Member State carries an annual inspection commitment.

inspect all Priority I ships, referred to in Article 12(a), calling at its ports and anchorages; and

Every Priority I ship calling at its ports and anchorages has to be inspected. The combined annual number of Priority I and Priority II inspections also has to reach that State’s share. So postponing an inspection is not simply letting it go. It touches the tally, and the provision writes that treatment out separately.

Where a Member State decides to postpone an inspection pursuant to the first subparagraph, that postponed inspection shall not count towards that Member State’s compliance with its annual inspection commitment referred to in Articles 6 and 7 if the postponed inspection is recorded as such in the inspection database.

A postponed inspection does not count towards that State’s annual commitment. There is one condition. It has to be recorded as postponed in the database.

Where an inspection is not carried out on a Priority I or Priority II ship for operational reasons, it shall not be counted as a missed inspection, provided that the reason for not carrying out the inspection is recorded in the inspection database and any of the following exceptional circumstances apply:

Here the inspection was not postponed but simply not carried out, and it still does not count as a missed inspection. In exchange the grounds are limited to three. The competent authority considers that the inspection would create a risk to the safety of inspectors, the ship or its crew, or to the port or the marine environment. The call takes place only during night time. The call is too short for the inspection to be carried out satisfactorily. Article 8(4) adds one more, for extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances.

Both branches ask for the same thing. The reason goes into the inspection database. Without that record neither the postponement nor the exception stands.

A ship that calls only at night does not keep clearing on the night ground

Where the circumstances under point (b) apply, Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that ships which regularly call during night time are inspected as appropriate.

A night call is a ground for that day, not an exemption to be used again and again. Where the same ship keeps calling only at night, the Member State has to find a way to inspect it appropriately. The provision opens the ground and closes off its hardening at once.

Ships at anchorage are dealt with separately in Article 8(3), and the conditions have the same shape. Inspection at another port or anchorage within 15 days, or night calls and short calls and safety risk given as the reason with that reason recorded in the database.

Eligibility for an expanded inspection runs on a profile axis and an age axis

The following categories of ships are eligible for an expanded inspection in accordance with Annex I, Part II, 3A and 3B:

Article 14(1) attaches four categories.

• Ships with a high risk profile
• Passenger ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers, gas carriers, NLS tankers and chemical tankers older than 12 years of age
• Ships in the two categories above where overriding or unexpected factors are present
• Ships inspected following a refusal of access order issued under Article 16 and Article 21(4)

The first category is the profile axis and the second is the type and age axis. That they stand apart is what to read here. A ship whose profile is not high is still eligible once it is one of those types and older than 12 years, and a ship with a high risk profile is eligible without regard to type or age. Only the fourth category differs in kind. Where the first three look at the present state, this one looks at history.

A short call does not release a ship from an expanded inspection

The operator or master of the ship shall ensure that sufficient time is available in the operating schedule to allow the expanded inspection to be carried out.

The duty to keep enough time in the schedule sits with the operator and the master. A short call was, earlier, a ground for the authority to skip an inspection. The same fact is not a ground the ship can use here.

Without prejudice to control measures required for security purposes, the ship shall remain in the port until the inspection is completed.

The ship stays in port until the inspection is completed. What sets the time of departure is the end of the inspection, not the cargo schedule.

An expanded inspection shall be carried out, as far as possible, by no fewer than two port State control inspectors. If this is not possible, the reasons shall be duly recorded in the inspection database. The scope of an expanded inspection, including the risk areas to be covered, is set out in Annex VII.

The inspection is staffed, as far as possible, by two inspectors, and where that is not possible the reasons go into the database. What is looked at is set by Annex VII. Writing the staffing and the scope into the provision means an expanded inspection takes time, and the job of putting that time into the schedule comes back to the duty quoted above.

Worth confirming

The passages above come from Articles 5, 8 and 14 of EU Directive 2009/16. These provisions have been amended, and the amendment dates differ from paragraph to paragraph. Eligibility for an expanded inspection is filled in by Annex I, Part II, 3A and 3B, the scope by Annex VII, and the implementing acts for applying it are adopted by the Commission. How postponements and exceptions are recorded is where Member State implementing law and Paris MoU practice diverge.