1 The main purpose of this circular is to provide
guidance in a concise form to Administrations, shipowners/operators,
port State control officers (PSCOs), companies and audit teams according
to the ISM Code and organizations performing
the ISM Code certification of IMO requirements
on carriage of publications. The publications explicitly required
by IMO instruments to be carried on board ships are listed in the
appendix.
2 IMO instruments such as the SOLAS, MARPOL, LL,
COLREG and STCW Conventions deal with many operational aspects, inter
alia, navigational responsibilities, safety-related training/drills
on board, safe cargo handling, oil spill prevention, collision avoidance
activities and watchkeeping standards. Therefore, these publications,
although not expressly required by IMO instruments, may need to be
carried on board in order to improve the crew's knowledge and to enhance
the implementation of IMO instruments. No deficiency or non-conformity
should be filed by port State control authorities and/or ISM auditors
against ships not carrying such publications on board unless otherwise
required by the ship's Safety Management System (SMS) manual.
3 In circumstances where copies of national regulations
incorporating the provisions of the required instruments are provided
on board, relevant publications need not be carried. Similarly, nothing
in the IMO requirements preclude ships from carrying publications
required by IMO instruments and published by Administrations.
4 The publications may be carried in the form
of electronic media such as CD-ROM in lieu of hard copies. Acceptable
publications in electronic form should be those issued by IMO or an
Administration or a body authorized by an Administration to ensure
correctness of their contents and to safeguard against illegal copying.
A medium could either contain a publication or as many publications
as possible. In any case, the media should be treated in accordance
with the document control procedures in the ship's SMS including procedures
for timely update.
5 Notwithstanding paragraph 4 above, the publications
for emergency use, such as the International Code of Signals and the
IAMSAR Manual should always be available in the form of hard copies,
bearing in mind that such publications need to be readily available
for use in case of emergency without being restricted to a specific
place and by the availability of a computer.