The New Inspection Regime called NIR was adopted by the Paris Memorandum of Understanding at its Committee meeting held in Reykjavik, Iceland (May 2009). The NIR was developed by a task force led by the EC. The factual leadership of this task force was delegated to EMSA. The NIR is also the main element of the recast Port State Control Directive 2009/16/EC which has been published in the Official Journal 28.05.09.

As the NIR is no longer based on the individual 25% quota, a “fair share” scheme was developed. The fair share scheme is a ratio of individual ship calls in a Member State to the individual ship calls of all Member States. A key element for the implementation of the NIR will be the recording of Port call information. This Port call information is also important for the planning of inspections and resources by the Member States. The Port call information must be introduced by the Member States into SafeSeaNet, and will be then transferred to the new database for Port State Control. The project to develop the new database for Port State Control, named THETIS, which will replace the existing SIReNaC system, is managed by EMSA.

The targeting of ships will no longer be based on a Target Factor but on a “Ship Risk Profile” (SRP). The SRP Calculator evaluates if a ship will be considered as High Risk Ship (HRS), Standard Risk Ship (SRS) or Low Risk Ships (LRS). A new element which will help to categorise a ship is the inclusion of the performance of the ISM Company. Companies will, as the flag and recognised organisation, be ranked. This ranking is done in four distinct grades: “above average”, “average”, “low” and “very low”. The Company Performance (CP) Calculator will take historical events such as detentions, deficiencies and good inspections of the complete fleet of that company into account. THETIS will re-calculate the SRP on a daily basis, taking the latest inspection information into account.

• Low Risk Ships will be rewarded and not subjected to an inspection within the 24 months following the last inspection, with a maximum inspection-free timespan of 36 months.
• SRS will be subject to an inspection interval of between 10 and 12 months.
• HRS will face the more stringent inspection interval which is every 6 months. The inspection on a HRS will be an in-depth, so-called “expanded inspection”. These expanded inspections include risk items which will be inspected every time. THETIS will serve as a platform to guide the inspectors through this more complicated targeting procedure, and as a central archive for storing inspection results allowing a comprehensive overview of all inspected vessels.