Safety of Existing Fleet of Singapore-registered Vessels and Their Compliance with Statutory Requirements
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the safety of Singapore-registered vessels and the assessment of classification societies, as raised by Mr Saktiandi Supaat. Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat explained that the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) authorises eight societies to ensure statutory compliance through rigorous surveys and inspections. MPA monitors these societies based on their competency and expertise, retaining the authority to suspend those that fail to meet specific requirements. The Minister highlighted the fleet's high safety performance and low global detention rates, supported by mandatory annual surveys. These surveys verify that every vessel remains fully compliant with international conventions regarding structure, equipment, and arrangements.
Transcript
61 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether he can provide an update on the safety of the existing fleet of Singapore-registered vessels; and (b) how does the Ministry assess the ability of the eight ship classification societies to continue to ensure that Singapore-registered vessels comply with all statutory requirements.
Mr Chee Hong Tat: Safety is a key focus of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). It has put in place measures to promote safety at sea for Singapore-registered vessels, based on international regulations and procedures. As the Singapore flag administration, MPA has appointed and authorised eight classification societies that are members of the International Association of Classification Societies to survey, inspect and ensure Singapore-registered vessels comply with the applicable statutory requirements. These classification societies have a rigorous set of classification rules and are assessed by MPA based on their competency, expertise and adequacy of resources over several geographies.
MPA has a framework in place to monitor and ensure that appointed classification societies carry out their work and surveys well. If a classification society fails to meet the requirements under the framework, MPA could suspend or cease its appointment.
Singapore-registered vessels have a high safety performance record with a consistently low detention rate in all major Port State Control regimes worldwide. All Singapore-registered vessels are surveyed regularly by an authorised classification society, with at least one survey annually, to verify that their structure, equipment systems, fittings, arrangements and materials are fully compliant with international conventions.