FINAL REPORT - Stakeholders - Ofcom

Directive on Marine Equipment, 98/85/EC and modifications. In accordance with the
provisions of this Directive, radio equipment installed on board a vessel required to comply
with SOLAS, must install equipment that complies with the standards of those
Standardisation Bodies listed in the relevant Annex to the Directive. This requires that such
equipment must comply with either the relevant ETSI Standard or the International Electro-
Technical Commission (IEC) Standard. The equipment would also have to me marked as
compliant with the standard. However Article 6.1 of the Directive states, ”No Member State
shall prohibit the placing on the market or the placing on board a Community ship of
equipment referred to in Annex A.1 which bears the mark or for other reasons complies
with this Directive or refuse to issue or renew the safety certificates relating thereto.”
These requirements would continue (unless the Directive and IMO Carriage Requirements
were amended) even if the UK introduced a requirement for more spectrally efficient
equipment to be installed on UK vessels since a vessel owner could still fit any equipment
bearing the ships wheel mark.
Of course safety is a major factor in the case of the IMO SOLAS Convention and a similar
scenario exists in the case of aviation and the ICAO Convention. In this regard the
operational requirements have been developed to ensure that the equipment provides an
adequate level of operational integrity, designed to satisfy safety of life and property needs.
A similar situation could arise with non SOLAS vessels where radar equipment is subject to
the R&TTE Directive, 99/5/EC. This ‘new approach Directive’ relies on harmonised
standards to provide a presumption of conformity with the essential requirements of the
Directive, one of which (Article 3.2) requires the effective and efficient use of the radio
spectrum to avoid harmful interference. In non harmonised frequency bands such as the
radiodetermination bands, a manufacturer is required to notify an administration before
placing the equipment on the market. Administrations in turn issue ‘interface requirements’
with any specific national requirements. It could be argued that if spectrally efficient
requirements were introduced by the UK to avoid harmful interference to current and future
services then this would be in accordance with the Directive. On the other hand difficulties
might arise if UK requirements were such that CE marked or IEC compliant equipment
designed for the band in question and accepted by other Member States were not
acceptable in the UK.
8.6.2 The Market
Let us then assume that the UK would like to move forward in view of extreme pressures
on the spectrum. Let us also assume that the standards issue can be resolved on the basis
that European industry has realised the potential benefit of producing more spectrally
efficient equipment which meets all the current standards. However, because the UK would
be the only country adopting such an approach, the cost of the equipment would be
significantly higher than conventional radar equipment which also carries the CE and
‘Ship’s-Wheel’ marks. UK ship owners may well argue that in the case of SOLAS vessels
they are entitled to fit the cheaper equipment, manufacturers may also challenge any UK
‘national’ requirement, if it means their declaration of conformity is not accepted by a single
Member State, in this case the UK.
The Consultant therefore tends towards the opinion that any requirement for improvements
in spectrum efficiency should be carried through to the European arena with a view to
propagating UK requirements in the appropriate European forums. If successful the major
European fleets of Cyprus, Malta and Greece, as well as other EU Member States would
significantly increase the market size for more spectrally efficient equipment, producing
significant economies of scale.
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