CHANGES in the Transport Safety Investigations Regulations will require pilotage providers and VTS to report transport safety occurrences to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The changes, which take effect on 1 January, designate pilots and vessel traffic service authorities as “responsible persons”, and therefore required to report occurrences.
“The TSI Regulations set out the ATSB’s safety occurrence reporting scheme and prescribes what occurrences must be reported to the ATSB, the ‘responsible persons’ who are required to make a report, and the particulars to be included in a report,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
“This is to cover occurrences which would otherwise not be reported because a ship leaves port and no other relevant entity with knowledge of the occurrence would be in a position to report to the ATSB.”
For the marine industry – the Australian Maritime Safety Authority is a nominated official to receive occurrence reports from responsible persons, which are then transmitted to the ATSB.
“Capturing additional reporting from pilotage providers and vessel traffic service authorities will establish a more accurate dataset for safety analysis conducted by the ATSB,” Mr Mitchell said.
In consultations with industry and AMSA, some pilotage providers and VTS authorities already voluntarily submit reporting to AMSA, according to the ATSB.
The amendments have now been approved by the relevant minister. The amendments have been proposed to the Executive Council for endorsement in coming weeks.
Mr Mitchell said reporting is a simple and quick process Mr Mitchell said.
“Nonetheless we do recognise the marine industry has been through a period of considerable change and disruption in recent years and do stress that our approach to implementing these amended regulations is to focus on education and encouraging better reporting practices over an extended period, with less emphasis placed on compliance particularly for industry participants who may not be fully across the new requirements,” Mr Mitchell said.
“Ultimately all of industry benefits from an open and trusted and marine occurrence reporting framework.”
