ISM Certification

In addition to services for maritime Administrations to verify that vessels comply with the international regulations and the Administration requirements, the Polish Register of Shipping also provides variety of services to ship operators, including certification of ship safety management systems in accordance with the ISM Code.

The ISM Code applies to:

●   passenger ships, including passenger high-speed craft (irrespective of their tonnage), oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and cargo high-speed craft of 500 gross tonnage and upwards,
●   other cargo ships and mobile offshore drilling units of 500 gross tonnage and upwards.

The ISM Code is the first ever formal and compulsory safety management standard in shipping. Among other things, its introduction aimed to completely, or at least partially, eliminate human errors, which are the most common cause of marine accidents. These errors may be avoided by the development and implementation of the Safety Management System in accordance with the ISM Code requirements in each shipping company and on board every ship. The responsibility for the development, implementation and maintaining of such system rests with the ship operator.

PRS activities cover:

●   ship safety management system documentation assessment,
●   auditing the ship operator’s office / ship,
●   issuing the relevant certificate.

The certification process is carried out in accordance with IMO Resolution A.913 (22) and amended guidelines for implementation of the International Safety Management System (ISM Code). The ISM certification process is available here.

PRS ensures unbiased assessment and non-disclosure with respect to customer’s confidential information as well as observations and conclusions during and after the certification process.

Ship operators whose safety management system has been certified for compliance with the ISM Code have the right to place the PRS SA ISM Code certification mark in their documents. Principles for the use of this mark are available here.

PRS also offers the system survey and its periodical assessment to ensure that the ship operator’s certified system continues to fulfil the certification. The rules for the safety management system survey are available here.

Another service we have on offer is an integrated certification of safety management system (ISM) and the quality management system certification for compliance with standard ISO 9001, which considerably reduces the cost of obtaining the respective certificates.