Your examiner asks: "How often must security drills and exercises be conducted under the ISPS Code, and who is responsible?" Give the exact ISPS Code requirements.

A. The SSO must ensure security drills are conducted at least every 3 months. If more than 25% of the ship's crew has changed since the last drill, a drill must be held within one week. The CSO must ensure security exercises involving the full company response are conducted at least once per calendar year, with no more than 18 months between exercises.

B. Security drills are required monthly by the SSO. Annual exercises are optional — they may be replaced by an ISM audit.

C. The ISPS Code does not specify drill frequencies. This is left to the discretion of the master and SSO, to be recorded in the SSP.

D. Security drills must be held at every port of call as part of the arrival safety check. Exercises are conducted by the CSO annually without ship involvement.

A. The International Safety Management Code is a mandatory international standard for the safe management and operation of ships. It is given mandatory effect by SOLAS Chapter IX, which requires companies and ships of 500 GT and above on international voyages to hold a Document of Compliance (DOC) and Safety Management Certificate (SMC).

B. The ISM Code is a voluntary industry guideline published by the ICS that sets out best practice for ship safety management. Compliance is required for ships over 3,000 GT only.

C. The ISM Code is an MCA statutory requirement published under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. It applies to all UK-flagged vessels regardless of size.

D. The ISM Code is mandatory under MARPOL Annex VI for vessels in emission control areas and requires a Safety Management System to be in place covering pollution prevention.

A. The Document of Compliance (DOC) is issued to the company by the flag state or a recognised organisation on its behalf, confirming the company's SMS meets ISM Code requirements. The Safety Management Certificate (SMC) is issued to each individual ship, confirming the ship's SMS operates in conformity with the approved DOC.

B. The DOC is issued to the master personally confirming the master is competent to manage the ship's SMS. The SMC is issued to the company for all its ships collectively.

C. Both the DOC and the SMC are issued to the ship by the port state control authority after a PSC inspection. They are valid for the port in which the inspection took place.

D. The DOC covers environmental management under MARPOL and the SMC covers safety management under SOLAS. Both are issued to the ship owner.