Pilotage Standards & The Government

September 10th, 2009 by JCB
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PILOTAGE STANDARDS & THE GOVERNMENT

Pilots who follow the conference will be aware that since the beginning of the century there has been a set of National Occupational Standards (NOS) for pilotage training gathering dust on the shelves of a chameleon style port run body that has metamorphasised through various incarnations into Port Skills and Safety (PSS). Having originally been drafted by UKMPA pilots with Bob Jones of the DfT in 2000, this document details standards required for maritime pilots for incorporation into the Port Marine Safety Code (PMSC) and form the basis for a pilotage qualification. For the past 9 years, despite MAIB recommendations and pressure from the DfT, the Ports and ship owners representatives have consistently blocked implementation of the NOS document because it conflicts with their opinion that pilots don’t need any more than a basic school leaver’s “Foundation degree”. As mentioned in the conference report on page ?? the DfT and MCA have now decided that the issue of NOS is nothing to do with them and have handed the matter to PSS. The foxes have effectively been handed the keys to the hen house! The UKMPA’s frustration with all this has been neatly summed up by Barrie Youde who has penned the following:

Yon Geoffrey Hoon, he standeth doon: Fitzpatrick speaketh nought.

Who now maintains the Pilotage in any UK Port?

Who cares a fig for navigation danger or pollution,

Laws or standards regulated, made  by  resolution?

The Mother of all Parliaments is held in high contempt

At Clyde and Humber, where the burghers hold themselves exempt

From obligations recognised throughout the shipping trade.

Disaster there is courted by the shovelful – and spade.

All standards disregarded – every written record serves

To evidence the increase in collisions, scrapes and swerves.

I will not stand in silence as the laws are disregarded

Nor watch the civil servants, all most handsomely rewarded,

Do nothing as this tragedy develops and unfolds,

By loss of human life and loss of cargo from ships’ holds.

Thus, if you are not speechless, nor insane nor simply weak

O, Parliament! For Christ’s sake! Will you hear the Pilot speak?