Surveys, audits and port state control

Every ship lives on a calendar of surveys, audits and inspections. The flag State, or a classification society acting for it, surveys the hull and equipment and issues the safety certificates. Auditors check the safety management system, the ship security plan and seafarers’ working and living conditions. Then, in almost every port, a port State control officer can walk up the gangway and ask to see all of it. Miss a survey window and a certificate stops being valid on the spot. Fail a port State inspection and the ship stays alongside.

The numbers show how often this goes wrong. In 2025 the Tokyo MOU carried out 35,546 inspections and detained 1,255 ships (3.53%); the most frequent detainable deficiencies were fixed fire-extinguishing installations, ISM and lifeboats. The Paris MoU recorded 16,474 inspections and 688 detentions, a detention rate of 4.18%, up from 4.03% in 2024, with fire safety, structural and electrical items and seafarers’ health and medical care named as recurring problem areas (Tokyo MOU Annual Report 2025; Paris MoU Annual Report 2025, as summarised by IIMS).

This course explains the system from the inside: which survey is due when and why, who does what between flag, class and port State, how ISM, ISPS and MLC audits really work, what the IMO safety signs must look like, and how to prepare a ship so that a port State inspection ends with a clean report. Every rule is cited to the instrument in force on the date shown, including the 2025 Survey Guidelines under the HSSC, resolution A.1207(34), and the Procedures for Port State Control, 2025, resolution A.1206(34).

What you will learn

• Work out every survey window on a ship’s certificates, and what happens if one is missed or an extension is needed.
• Explain the roles of the flag State, recognised organisations, classification societies and port States, and where each one’s responsibility ends.
• Prepare a ship and a company for ISM Code, ISPS Code and MLC 2006 audits and inspections, including the medicine chest.
• Check escape route signs and equipment location markings against resolution A.1116(30) and ISO 24409.
• Prepare for a port State control inspection, and know which findings lead to detention and how to get a ship released.