An examination of a foreign-flagged vessel in port by officers of the port state to verify compliance with international conventions.
In practice
The inspection begins with an initial check of the vessel's certificates and the overall condition of the vessel; if deficiencies are found, the PSC officer may conduct an expanded inspection examining crew competence, emergency equipment, structural condition, pollution prevention systems, and working and living conditions under MLC 2006. Deficiencies that render the vessel unsafe or non-compliant with MARPOL or SOLAS are recorded and the shipowner must rectify them within a specified period. Serious deficiencies — or systemic patterns of deficiency — may lead to vessel detention, preventing departure until satisfactory rectification is confirmed. Targeted and priority vessels (those with poor PSC history) receive more frequent inspections under the MoU risk-based targeting systems.
Regulatory detail & full definition
A Port State Control (PSC) inspection is an official examination of a foreign-flagged vessel conducted by certificated inspection officers of the port state (the country in which the port is located) to verify that the vessel, its equipment, and its crew comply with the requirements of the principal international maritime conventions to which the flag state is a party. PSC is governed by regional memoranda of understanding (MoUs) — the Paris MoU for European and Atlantic waters, the Tokyo MoU for the Asia-Pacific region, and others — each maintaining a shared database of inspection records and deficiency histories.
The inspection begins with an initial check of the vessel's certificates and the overall condition of the vessel; if deficiencies are found, the PSC officer may conduct an expanded inspection examining crew competence, emergency equipment, structural condition, pollution prevention systems, and working and living conditions under MLC 2006. Deficiencies that render the vessel unsafe or non-compliant with MARPOL or SOLAS are recorded and the shipowner must rectify them within a specified period. Serious deficiencies — or systemic patterns of deficiency — may lead to vessel detention, preventing departure until satisfactory rectification is confirmed. Targeted and priority vessels (those with poor PSC history) receive more frequent inspections under the MoU risk-based targeting systems.