The Norwegian Maritime Authority has laid down Regulation concerning amendments to Regulations of 29 December No. 1455 on marine equipment (Marine Equipment Regulations). These amendments enter into force on 15 September 2014.
The Regulation was circulated for review in the period from 2 April to 20 June 2014. The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) received a total of 12 consultative statements, whereof 10 did not include comments to the proposal.
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security (JPS) notes that there is probably no need for a separate provision regarding scope of application. It is the NMA's assessment that the Act of 16 February 2007 No. 9 relating to ship safety and security (Ship Safety and Security Act) applies to both Norwegian and foreign ships. The provision regarding scope of application of the proposed Regulation narrows the application to just Norwegian ships, and the scope of application is also restricted in time to the period from 1 January 1999 and onwards. The NMA has therefore laid down a provision regarding scope of application corresponding to the provision circulated for review.
JPS furthermore comments on the NMA's use of the term "mobile offshore units". JPS feels that for the sake of consistency, the wording pursuant to the Ship Safety and Security Act section 2 second paragraph (a) should be used. The term "mobile offshore unit" has on the other hand been used in several of the NMA's sets of regulations, and is established and well known in the industry. The NMA therefore chooses to lay down and continue the term "mobile offshore unit".
Based on suggestions from JPS and the Federation of Norwegian Coastal Shipping the NMA has divided section 8a (from the proposal circulated for review) into seven sections categorised by type of marine equipment, called "item group", which refers to the item groups of Appendix A to the Marine Equipment Regulations.
The Marine Equipment Regulations set forth standardisation requirements for the individual categories and types of marine equipment placed on the European market. The Regulations do not require such equipment to be installed or placed on board. As a result of the fragmentary structure of the legislation, such equipment requirements will be stipulated by other sets of regulations, such as Regulations of 1 July 2014 No. 1019 on life-saving appliances on ships, Regulations of 1 July 2014 No. 1099 on fire protection on Norwegian ships, etc. The requirements for wheelmarked equipment thus have to be seen in connection with the requirements in the individual sets of regulations which regulate whether specific types of marine equipment shall be found on board. For instance, if a passenger ship with Passenger Certificate is required to have a rescue boat installed on board, then the rescue boat shall comply with the requirements stipulated by the Marine Equipment Regulations. Still, it is set forth in section 7 of the Regulations of 1 July 2014 No. 1019 on life-saving appliances that the requirement for rescue boat applies to passenger ships (with Passenger Certificate on domestic voyages) of 24 metres in length and upwards. Based on the comments from JPS and the Federation of Norwegian Coastal Shipping, and also as a result of the fragmentary structure of the legislation, it is the NMA's assessment that the chosen structure of sections 8a to 8g gives a better overview of where (on which ships) and from when, if applicable, wheelmarked equipment is required on Norwegian ships and mobile offshore units.