The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has published its latest Flag State Performance Table comparing the records of the world’s different flag states against a number of criteria such as port state control records, ratification of international maritime Conventions and attendance at IMO meetings.
Changes to the methodology of this year’s table include no longer giving a negative indicator against flags not making the US Qualship 21 programme, since the list of flag states qualifying “now varies considerably from year to year,” explains ICS director of policy & external relations Simon Bennett.
Overall, this year’s table “continues to highlight the sound performance of all of the world’s major flag administrations, regardless of whether they are open registers or so called ‘traditional’ maritime flags,” he adds.
An important development over the past year has been that the IMO Member State Audit Scheme became mandatory from the beginning of 2016. For next year’s table ICS therefore intends to add a new field indicating whether a flag has undergone that audit or not.
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