ISAS Update

It has been a very busy time within ISAS with Bill Boyle, our Principal Marine Accreditation Assessor, visiting Isle of Scilly, Shetland Islands and Dublin in the last quarter Steve Guy, our Senior Inland Accreditation Assessor, spent a very busy year; in Ireland in April and then in the Birmingham area in May delivering accreditation site visits for a number of OSRO’s, and also accrediting a number of spill response training courses for ISAS members, with the follow on work from these audits complete. Steve also completed site visits for a number of OSRO’s in the Manchester area (stage three of the accreditation process) in September.

In all cases the feedback has been positive, and we took this into our ISO 9001 audit which we passed well.

Change to the inland accreditations made in 2022 mean that the accreditations need to be supported by evidence and the initial stages of the audit are done via a pre-visit information request (stage 1) and a Teams meeting to go through a rigorous question set for each of the requested accreditation categories (stage 2) with the audit process concluding with a site visit at one of the company premises.

The longer process is useful as it gives a chance to review how processes are documented. The accreditation process has given companies a chance to review how they carry out audits, training, equipment checks and maintenance. The accreditation process has revealed that many companies never record these valuable activities. Documentation is important as this is used by the management team to ensure that the management systems are working properly!

Sadly, Neil Marson (the scheme manager) had to retire on grounds of ill health. We wish him well and thank him for his hard work following the sad death of John Dawes. Mark Orr has replaced him.

ISAS has seen a couple of businesses leave the accreditation scheme in the 2023, some stating that they are not winning sufficient work to justify continuing. This is a shame, and we hope that work will pick up for them and they will return.

However we have also had five new companies that have seen the benefits of being accredited and the benefits of drawing on the assessors many years’ experience. The scheme currently sits with a healthy membership.

Whilst the latest version of LCRM has flaws that we have raised with the EA sadly some remain and it still has its critics, We were pleased to see that its guidance does urge the use of experience accredited contractors and links to www.isasaccreditation.org. Let hope this makes a difference!

Lately calls for assistance for those with a spill or potential oil leaks have become more frequent. Interestingly some have come through recommendations to contact us from local authorities, some from insurance companies and several from environment agency officers. All enquirers are given the details of the three closest response companies with the accreditations relevant to the type of spill. In all this happened 85 times in 2023. We have made major updates to www.isasaccreditation.org to ensure it reflects all accredited companies and their modules. Please keep your details up to date and let us know if there are any changes or errors.

We held an Accreditation Steering Group meeting on 29th September to present the current scheme to the environmental and maritime regulators who continue to support it. They are enthusiastic about the scheme, and support its ongoing development. They are delighted that it is being kept up to date and have confidence in it.

At the Annual members Meeting in November the members agreed to appoint a new Board which has slimmed down now and is as follows:

Chair – Brian McGonagle

Vice Chair – Jon Burton

Inland auditor – Steve Guy

Marine Auditor – Bill Boyle

UKEireSpill – Mark Orr

This allows for two vacant slots that will filled when the board needs new expertise eg HNS, New fuels etc.

https://isasaccreditation.org/the-isasboard/

This year we are introducing one ISAS webinar each quarter on relevant themes. If you have a topic that you would like covered please let your assessor know.

As many of the inland companies will know, regrettably Steve Guy has asked to retire to spend more time at home. We will be announcing his replacement shortly. I would like to thank Steve for all of his hard work and dedication since joining ISAS. He has helped us modernise accreditation and optimise the question sets for each module. These are big boots to fill.

During this year we intend to produce a module for those that wish to be accredited for attending plastic pollution spills on shoreline and rivers.

We are also considering a module for those companies that wish to be accredited to attend Lithium-Ion battery fires. These are on the increase as the roll out of EV cars increases. However they are not just car fires but also e-scooters, e-bikes and from domestic and commercial battery storage systems. Our role in these incidents is to assist the Fire and Rescue Services and when safe to allow them to hand over the incident to the responder to make the site safe and importantly manage the fire water run off that is generally heavily contaminated.

More details at: www.isasaccreditation.org