Associated British Ports (ABP) is the UK’s largest ports group, operating 21 ports across England, Scotland, and Wales. Whilst the ABP Group has been compliant with the national standard for port marine safety since its inception (the Port Marine Safety Code), a system was desired to assist the whole Group in reaching a common standard for risk management and reporting .

To provide a Group-wide Marine Safety Management System to ABP, we adapted the standard ‘Port Assessment Toolkit’ in a variety of ways.

We developed the database functions into a multiple port system. As well as these enhanced database functions, the accident/incident reporting module included the additional functionality to geo-reference incidents for later analysis.

ABP also requested tailored report formats, customised risk control and cause/hazard lists to provide a common standard for all ports within the Group.

The use of the Port Assessment Toolkit has allowed ABP to manage its marine safety responsibilities more efficiently, with standardised reporting and post-incident review.

ABP Group can now share best practice amongst its ports as the software application allows, for a transparent view of risk management and accident/incident reporting enabling a strategic review to be carried out by marine managers without the need for port-by-port data gathering.

ABPmer’s maritime specialists have extensive experience undertaking Marine Risk Assessments and other checks to inform management and consents decision making.