Preamble
Clasification Society 2024 - Version 9.40
Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - International Codes - 2008 SPS Code – Code of Safety for Special Purpose Ships, 2008 – Resolution MSC.266(84) - Preamble

Preamble

  1 The Maritime Safety Committee, at its eighty-fourth session, revised the Code of Safety for Special Purpose Ships (SPS Code) adopted by resolution A.534(13) to bring it up to date with amendments to SOLAS and to extend the voluntary application of the revised Code to include training ships, whether or not covered by the application requirements of SOLAS.

  2 The Code has been developed to provide an international standard of safety for special purpose ships of new construction, the application of which will facilitate operation of such ships and result in a level of safety for the ships and their personnel equivalent to that required by the International Convention for the Safety at Life of Sea, 1974.

  3 For the purposes of this Code, a special purpose ship is a ship of not less than 500 gross tonnage which carries more than 12 special personnel, i.e. persons who are specially needed for the particular operational duties of the ship and are carried in addition to those persons required for the normal navigation, engineering and maintenance of the ship or engaged to provide services for the persons carried on board.

  4 Because special personnel are expected to be able bodied with a fair knowledge of the layout of the ship and have received some training in safety procedures and the handling of the ship’s safety equipment, the special purpose ships on which they are carried need not be considered or treated as passenger ships.

  5 In developing the safety standards for this Code it has been necessary to consider:

  • .1 the number of special personnel being carried; and

  • .2 the design and size of the ship in question.

  6 While the Code has been developed for new ships of 500 gross tonnage and above, Administrations may also consider the application of the provisions of the Code to ships of lesser tonnage. The term “new ship” has not been defined in order to give any Administration discretion to decide the effective date of entry into force.

  7 For facilitating the operation of special purpose ships, this Code provides for a certificate, called a Special Purpose Ship Safety Certificate, which should be issued to every special purpose ship. Where a special purpose ship is normally engaged on international voyages as defined in SOLAS it should, in addition, also carry SOLAS safety certificates, either:

  • .1 for a passenger ship with a SOLAS Exemption Certificate; or

  • .2 for a cargo ship with a SOLAS Exemption Certificate, where necessary,

 as the Administration deems appropriate.

  8 Noting that the Code may be readily applied to some ships that carry special personnel on board to which SOLAS does not apply, the Maritime Safety Committee invites Administrations to apply the standards of the Code to such ships to the extent deemed reasonable and practicable.


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