Question 1

RISQ Q2.10-2.12 cover the vessel manager's drug and alcohol policy, including STCW mandatory alcohol limits and records of the last unannounced group alcohol test and external drug test. Why does RISQ specifically require the tests to be "unannounced," rather than simply requiring that testing occurs on some regular schedule?

Accepted Answer

An announced test only verifies compliance at a moment crew can prepare for, which defeats the purpose of screening for genuine fitness for duty — unannounced testing is the only method that provides a reliable, representative picture of actual onboard alcohol/drug use rather than test-day behaviour This is a straightforward but important point: any compliance check that can be anticipated and prepared for measures the wrong thing. The entire value of an unannounced alcohol/drug test is that it reflects genuine fitness for duty at a random point in time, which is exactly the assurance a vetting inspector and the company's own SMS are trying to obtain.

Question 2

RISQ Q4.4 asks whether the Master "periodically review[s] the effectiveness of the onboard Safety Management System, report[s] the findings to shore based management and receive[s] feedback from them," at least once every 12 months. Why is the feedback loop back from shore management treated as part of the requirement, not just the Master's review itself?

Accepted Answer

A Master's review that goes unanswered by the company is a one-way report, not a functioning management loop — the ISM Code's purpose is to ensure shore management actively engages with and acts on shipboard safety findings, so evidence of a response from the company is what distinguishes a genuine SMS from one that exists only on the ship This is the same systemic-versus-isolated logic seen in the SIRE/PSC content: a safety management system that only flows one direction (ship to shore, with no documented response) is not actually managing anything — it is filing. RISQ's explicit requirement for "evidence of the company's response" turns this from a paperwork exercise into a real test of whether shore management is engaged.

Question 3

RISQ Q4.5 requires enclosed space entry procedures to be defined in the SMS, with RightShip specifically recommending that an enclosed independent compartment housing a ballast water treatment system be identified as an enclosed space. Why call this specific example out, rather than leaving "enclosed space" to be interpreted generically?

Accepted Answer

Ballast water treatment systems are a relatively recent addition to many vessels' machinery and may not have been captured when the ship's original enclosed-space list was compiled — RightShip's guidance closes a real gap where a genuinely hazardous space could be missed simply because it postdates the vessel's original space-identification exercise This question tests the same "normalisation of deviance via omission" pattern flagged elsewhere in this library's enclosed-space content — a space can be hazardous and yet absent from the official list simply because nobody updated the list when the equipment was retrofitted. BWM systems, often added under retrofit compliance deadlines, are a concrete, real-world example of exactly this gap.