P&I Club Publishes ISM Guide

The 'A' rated 54 million GT North of England P&I club has published a second edition of its popular guide for the shipping industry on the International Safety Management (ISM) Code. The first edition of A Seafarer's Guide to ISM, which was published to coincide with the code's phase II implementation in July 2002, has proved an essential shipboard reference and several thousand copies are now in use worldwide. North of England's risk-management manager Tony Baker says: 'Though many companies and seafarers have embraced the ISM as it was intended, we are aware there are others who still have misconceptions about the fundamental ideas behind the code and the way in which a safety management system should be structured and operated. A number of serious misunderstandings persist and this concise second edition is an attempt to help overcome these.' 'We have updated, revised and restructured the second edition such that it can more readily be used as the basis for onboard training,' says Baker. 'It also now includes a new 10-point checklist against which to assess the essential elements of a safety management system and a new comprehensive glossary of the potentially confusing array of ISM terms and abbreviations.' North of England co-authored the 48-page illustrated guide with two of the world's leading maritime safety experts - Peter Kidman, former safety, environmental and technical manager at INTERCARGO and now general manger of the Liberian Registry in London, and Phil Anderson, managing director of ConsultISM, which provides consultancy and expert witness services on ISM-related issues. Bill O'Neil, now retired secretary general of IMO, wrote the foreword to the first edition. He says the guide: 'provides a straightforward explanation of the basic concepts that underpin the ISM Code and will leave seafarers better positioned to play their part in its successful implementation. The shipping industry has justifiably developed high expectations of the Code and this guide, I believe, can be an important component in ensuring that it fulfils them.' 'A Seafarer's Guide to ISM - Second Edition' by Peter Kidman, Phil Anderson and North of England P&I Association, ISBN 0 9546537 3 4, is available to non-members from Anchorage Press (www.anchoragepress.co.uk) for £30 including postage.