The UK MCA has released an amendment to MGN 708(M), which sets out guidance and instructions regarding International Safety Management and the application of the Merchant Shipping International Safety Management Regulations 2026.
This notice replaces the 2014 ISM regulations and assimilated regulations 336/2006 in implementing the ISM code in UK law.
It also addresses certain gaps which arose in the previous legislation as a result of the UK leaving the EU, which were not addressed at the point of EU Exit. They also remove references to EU law and redundant EU-specific provisions. The scope of the Regulations is broadly similar to the previous legislation, as originally adopted when the UK was an EU member state, but the following points are clarified:
Importantly, the Regulations do not alter the requirements of the ISM Code. The existing safety management systems, audits (also referred to as “verifications”), and certification duties remain unchanged. However, the procedures for these are set out in more detail in the Regulations, bringing them into line with the approach under other more recent sets of Merchant Shipping Regulations which implement SOLAS survey and certification obligations, such as the Merchant Shipping (Survey and Certification) Regulations 2015 as amended.