Centres de Sécurité des Navires

To carry out these inspections, the inspectors base themselves on the technical standards published by the French maritime administration as well as IMO international conventions such as SOLAS or MARPOL for larger ships.

Ship safety inspectors are also responsible for auditing and issuing certificates on all French vessels with a tonnage greater than 500 GT for ISM (safety management), ISPS (security management) as well as MLC (social certification).

Inspectors from ship safety centers are Port State Control Officer for the Paris Mou.

In 2018, 1073 PSC inspections were carried out, more than half of them revealed deficiencies on board and 35 ships were detained in French ports.

The inspectors also carry out checks on the compliance of the fuels used by ships with regard to international regulations concerning sulfur content, for this, samples are taken by inspectors for laboratory analysis or by using drones[4] The inspectors working in Ships Safety Center belong to the French Civil Service, they are either members of a military corps "Administrateurs des affaires maritimes" or the technical corps of the "Ingénieurs des Travaux Publics de l'Etat".