Prior to the attacks on the USA on 11 September 2001, the UK’s maritime security regime was provided by the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990. It applied to passenger vessels and roll-on/roll off services and the ports that serve them. In December 2002 the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted a new international instrument called the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code which was incorporated by the European Commission (EC) into Regulation (EC Regulation 725/2004 (PDF - 851KB)) with implementation dates of:
1 July 2004 for passenger ships and other ships over 500 tonnes on international voyages and the port facilities that serve them
1 July 2005 for domestic passenger vessels that go more than 20 nautical miles from land
1 July 2007 for certain domestic sea-going passenger vessels and cargo vessels over 500 gross tonnes on domestic voyages
This regulation was transposed into UK law using the following statutory instruments:
Statutory Instrument 2004 No. 1495, The Ship and Port Facility (Security) Regulations 2004
Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 1434, The Ship and Port Facility (Security) (Amendment) Regulations 2005
The national maritime security programme covers all commercial maritime operations and by regulation the DfT applies the programme to passenger ships carrying more than 12 passengers and to cargo vessels over 500 gross tonnes on international voyages (including mobile offshore drilling units) and the port facilities that serve them. With effect from 1 July 2007 we are regulating Class II(A) and Class III domestic passenger ships as well as Class VIII(A)(T) tankers used to transport oil and gas products domestically. In March 2004, the International Labour Organisation published a code of practice to enhance security throughout ports and this has been used as the basis for an EC Directive (EC Directive 65/2005 on enhancing port security which the UK is transposing by way of Regulation. Port and ship security assessments have been conducted to establish threats and vulnerabilities to port facilities and ships. These assessments are used by operators of ships and port facilities to draw-up ship and port facility security plans in accordance with security instructions issued by DfT. The plans are subject to approval by DfT and subject to a programme of compliance inspection by DfT and EC inspectors.