Compliance regulations should be dovetailed

For organisations such as Ocean Safety which specialises in the supply and service of life rafts and other life saving equipment, there has been a considerable and noticeable shift in the marine industry towards compliance on new regulations. The company invests heavily in compliance and six months’ ago employed a full-time compliance officer to focus on the issue saying it is the biggest factor affecting the business.

“We’re spending more and more time and resources on administering compliance,” said Ocean Safety general manager Alistair Hackett. “Whether it is the MCA, trading standards or regulations affecting CAT C medical kits which have to be temperature recorded when in the stores and batch numbers recorded.

“There seems to an increasing number of government bodies with different regulations. One of our areas is the hiring of liferafts and now we have to have a different compliance to do with the finance side of this.

“We are dealing with safety equipment so regulations are critical and key but it all keeps adding to overheads and means more money to a business and adds to the onus.”

And while Ocean Safety is one of the biggest safety companies in the UK and works to all the latest legislation, for smaller service stations it makes it almost unmanageable.

“It is especially important for us as one of the world’s leading safety suppliers to comply with these ever-changing regulations, instilling customer and supplier confidence in our company, products, brands, safety advice and guidance,” said Mr Hackett.

The regulations range from ensuring Ocean Safety complies to its ISO9001 requirements to ensuring the company complies to MCA stipulations on liferaft service stations.

“Some of the most recent regulations include the supply of wholesale CAT C medical kits, environmental issues and the shipping of explosives and pyrotechnics governance,” said Mr Hackett.

“Due to the nature of the products that we are supplying here at Ocean Safety, the need to comply and have good governance and traceability is critical, but there has to be an element of realism.”

And he said while Ocean Safety is keen to encourage and ensure standards of servicing and supply are kept at top levels, other businesses within the industry need to know what is required and sing from the same hymn sheet.

External legislation also needs to be dovetailed which would help cut down on some of the paperwork. The company is dealing with more commercial servicing with demand for UK servicing almost year-round.

“Safety equipment has improved and is becoming more prevalent whether people are driving yachts or a supertanker and boats are becoming better equipped,” added Mr Hackett.

By Katina Read