Surveys, audits and PSCLesson 4 of 7
ISPS Code verification: the ship security plan and the ISSC
You will know how the ISSC cycle works, which security records must be on board, and what a port State officer may and may not ask to see.
14 minutes · For signed-up learners, free · Rules checked 20 October 2026
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Security on a merchant ship is easy to treat as paperwork: a plan in a locked cabinet, a certificate on the bulkhead, a log of visitors at the gangway. Port State control no longer sees it that way. The Procedures for Port State Control, 2025, resolution A.1206(34), added a new appendix on security, giving inspectors an explicit basis to act where security arrangements are ineffective in practice, not just incomplete on paper. In the Tokyo MOU region alone, PSCOs recorded 1,061 deficiencies under the ISPS Code in 2025.
The International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code was adopted in December 2002 together with SOLAS chapter XI-2 and entered into force on 1 July 2004. Part A is mandatory. Part B is guidance, which the Administration and port States use to interpret Part A, and which some States (the European Union among them) have made partly binding in their own law.
Continue this lesson free
The rest of this lesson, the interactive A security week on a container ship and the quiz are open to signed-up learners. It's free, takes a minute, and opens every lesson in all 14 courses.
In this lesson
- Try it: A security week on a container ship
- In plain words
- In detail
- What the rules say
- Flag and class notes
- Key numbers
- What inspectors find
- Questions people ask
- Quiz: 5 questions
Sources
- 1 International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, Part A, sections 2, 5, 9, 10, 13 and 19 (IMO publication; text as reproduced in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 725/2004, legislation.gov.uk point-in-time version of 31 January 2020). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/725/annex/II/2020-01-31
- 2 ISPS Code, Part B, paragraphs 1.12 to 1.14, 4.32 to 4.43, 9.2, 13.6 and 13.7 (text as reproduced in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 725/2004, point-in-time version of 31 January 2020); Article 3(5) of that Regulation lists the Part B paragraphs, including 13.6 and 13.7, that EU Member States apply as if mandatory. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/725/annex/III/2020-01-31
- 3 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, as amended, chapter XI-2, regulations 2, 6 and 9, and chapter XI-1, regulation 5 (IMO publication). https://www.imo.org/en/About/Conventions/Pages/International-Convention-for-the-Safety-of-Life-at-Sea-(SOLAS),-1974.aspx
- 4 Bahamas Maritime Authority, Technical Alert 26-04, IMO Procedures for Port State Control 2025, section 3.1 (3 March 2026). https://www.bahamasmaritime.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/TA004-IMO-Procedures-for-Port-State-Control-2025.pdf
- 5 Panama Maritime Authority, Merchant Marine Circular MMC-379, Procedure for Port State Control, 2025 amendments, section 3.1 (updated July 2026). https://www.panamashipregistry.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MMC-379-Procedure-for-PSC-2025-30-07-2026.pdf
- 6 Tokyo MOU, Annual Report on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region 2025, table 7 (deficiencies by category). https://www.tokyo-mou.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/ANN25.pdf
Free awareness training. Al Safwan Marine is not an approved training provider, so no certificate is given, and these courses are not a qualification. They don't replace STCW training, manufacturer training or the certification technicians need for this work. The manufacturer's manual and your flag's rules always come first.
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