The UK has topped a list of flag state performance compiled by the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control.
It has produced a table based on 2019 inspection results that classes registers as white, grey and black in terms of quality.
The list takes into account flag states and recognised organisations acting on their behalf It features the "full spectrum, from quality flags to flags with a poorer performance based on inspection outcomes," Paris MOU said.
The list is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a three-year rolling period for flags.
Incentive to improve
Ships on the white list belong to quality flags with a consistently low detention record. Average registers are on the grey list, with the aim of giving them an incentive to improve.
"At the same time flags at the lower end of the grey list should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the black list next year," Paris MOU added.
A total of 70 flags feature. Of these, 41 are white, 16 grey and 13 black.
In 2018 Paris MOU assessed 73 flags, with the same number on the white list, 18 on the grey and 14 black.
The UK is ranked top with just 10 detentions from 1,072 inspections between 2017 and 2019, with Norway second and the Bahamas third.
The largest flag, Panama, ranks 36th and the US is in 40th place.
Other major flag states Malta, Marshall Islands and Liberia are all in the top 20.
Comoros was bottom of the pile, with 69 detentions from 380 inspections, followed by Albania and Togo.
Tunisia turns black
These three are the only flags rated as "high risk".
"Medium to high risk" names include Ukraine, Tanzania and Palau.
Tunisia is a new addition to the black list, dropping down from the grey last year, while Republic of the Congo, bottom last year, and Cambodia have disappeared from the assessment entirely.
A minimum number of 60 inspections per flag state are needed to qualify for the charts.
In 2019, 33 recognised organisations were recorded on the performance list.
Three of these found themselves in the "very low performing parts", Paris MOU said.
Out of 526 detentions recorded in 2019, 80 (15%) were considered related to recognised organisations, down from 17% in 2018.
