INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION 4 ALBERT EMBANKMENT LONDON SE1 7SR Telephone: 020 7735 7611 Fax: 020 7587 3210 IMO E Ref. T2-OSS/6.2 Circular letter No.2835 12 December 2007 To: Subject: All IMO Member States and Associate Members All Contracting Governments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention United Nations and its Specialized Agencies Intergovernmental Organizations Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with IMO All LRIT Data Centres International LRIT Data Exchange First session of the Ad hoc LRIT Group London, United Kingdom, 29 January to 1 February 2008 1 Pursuant to the decisions of the Maritime Safety Committee, at its eighty-third session, the Secretary-General has the honour to invite representation at the first session of the Ad hoc LRIT Group (the Group), to be held at Ashdown House, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DT, United Kingdom. The session will commence at 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 29 January 2008 and is expected to end on Friday, 1 February 2008. 2 The session will be conducted in English without interpretation and the terms of reference of the Group, as approved by the Maritime Safety Committee, at its eighty-third session, are set out in annex 1. The provisional agenda for the session is set out in annex 2. 3 Documentation will be distributed as and when received by the Secretariat. Participants are invited to note that the meeting documentation will be in English only and in order for any documents to be circulated on time for consideration at the session they should be received by the Secretariat preferably no later than Friday, 18 January 2008. 4 The Secretary-General would appreciate being informed, in due course, of the names of representatives, alternates, advisors and observers, as appropriate, intending to participate in the forthcoming sessions of the Group. As space is extremely limited, delegations may not be provided with more than one seat at the table. 5 Delegations are required to transmit, prior to the meeting of the Group, a list of their representatives, alternates, advisors and observers, as appropriate, intending to participate in the meeting together with a completed Pre-Registration Form (copy attached) for each delegate (including permanent representatives and liaisons to IMO) so that their particulars may be entered into the list of participants database and their meeting identifications prepared. The list, which serves as authorization for representatives, alternates, advisors and observers to attend meeting, must be on official letter-headed paper and signed by an authorized official or officer or alternatively, in the case of States, by the Permanent Representative of the State concerned to IMO or from the Head of the London-based Diplomatic Mission of the State concerned. No one will be registered without evidence of his/her authorization to attend the meeting.
Circular letter No.2835-2 - 6 Those delegates, whose names appear in the aforesaid list, will be issued with a requisite identification for entry to the meeting. Those delegates, whose names are not on the list, will be requested to provide evidence of their authorization prior to being allowed to attend the meeting. 7 Furthermore, delegates are required, on first arrival at Ashdown House, to show proof of their identity, e.g., passport or identity card, in order to obtain the requisite identification for entry to the meeting. At the opening of the meeting, delegates will be advised of any other security or safety procedures or arrangements which need to be observed whilst at Ashdown House. 8 Further two sessions of the Group have been tentatively scheduled to take place in London from 11 to 14 March 2008 and from 29 to 30 April 2008, respectively. 9 In order to facilitate visa applications, annex 3 sets out the Procedures governing the support by IMO of visa applications. ***
Circular letter No.2835 ANNEX 1 AD HOC LRIT GROUP General information and terms of reference 1 The Committee 1 recognized that, in order to ensure the timely implementation of the LRIT system during the design, development and testing phase it established, at no cost to the Organization, an Ad hoc LRIT Group (the Group) and authorized and empowered it to decide technical matters on behalf of the Committee. In particular, the Committee recognized that the Group needed to agree and adopt amendments to the relevant technical specifications and standards 2 previously approved by the Committee; to determine and agree testing schedules; and to witness, review and accept or approve test results, subject to consideration and approval, acceptance or endorsement of the actions and decision taken, by the Committee, in retrospect. 2 Notwithstanding the aforesaid, the Committee agreed the following terms of reference:.1 to consider necessary amendments to the technical specifications and standards as these might be approved by the Committee and to justify and agree any such amendments;.2 to consider, justify and agree test schedules and programmes and test acceptance criteria; and.3 to witness tests and to review and accept test results, on condition that the Group is not authorized in any way to consider or agree any matters which had an impact, consequence or entailing to a need for the adoption of amendments to regulation V/19-1 or the Performance standards 3 and on the understanding that the Committee would consider and, unless it deemed it to be unreasonable, would approve, accept and endorse, as the case may be, the actions taken in retrospect as if they had been taken by the Committee. 3 The rules of procedure of the Committee shall apply, as far as applicable, to the conduct of the business of the Group subject to the conditions set out below. 4 The Secretariat shall notify the Contracting Governments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention (Contracting Governments) and all LRIT Data Centres (DCs) notified to the Organization, the International LRIT Data Exchange (IDE) and the International LRIT Data Centre (IDC) at least forty-five days in advance of holding a session and shall determine the date(s) on which and the place(s) where the session is to take place. 5 The Secretariat shall, taking into account the issues to be considered by the Group and their impact on the timely establishment of the LRIT system, in each case determine the various deadlines for submission of documents to be considered by the Group. 1 2 3 The Maritime Safety Committee. Refer to MSC.1/Circ.1236 on Guidance on LRIT-related matters. Refer to the Performance standards and functional requirements for the long-range identification and tracking of ships, adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee of the Organization by resolution MSC.210(81) as amended by resolution MSC.254(83) on Adoption of amendments to the performance standards and functional requirements for the long-range identification and tracking of ships.
Circular letter No.2835 ANNEX 1 Page 2 6 The Group shall submit for each of its session a report on its activities for consideration by MSC 84. In this respect, the deadlines for the submission of documents for consideration by MSC 84, established pursuant to the Guidelines on the organization and method of work of the MSC and MEPC and their subsidiary bodies (MSC-MEPC.1/Circ.1) need not be strictly observed as the primary interest is the timely establishment of the LRIT system. 7 The unanimous agreement of all the Contracting Governments attending a particular session would be required before any matter would be deemed as agreed, on condition that at least 50 per cent of the DCs were represented by Contracting Governments and the Contracting Government establishing the IDE were present. 8 Only DCs which have been notified to the Organization in accordance with the provisions of the Performance standards shall be allowed to attend sessions of the Group. 9 It is the responsibility of each Contracting Government, of each DC and of the IDE to ensure their participation. 10 For matters which have a bearing on the DDP, the agreement of the Secretariat on behalf of the Organization would be required and no decision should be made which, in the opinion of the Secretariat, entails a financial burden on the Organization. 11 IMSO may attend any session of the Group. ***
Circular letter No.2835 ANNEX 2 Ad hoc LRIT Group 1st session Agenda item 1 MSC/Ad hoc LRIT 1/1 10 December 2007 ENGLISH ONLY PROVISIONAL AGENDA for the first session of the Ad hoc LRIT Group Ashdown House, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DT, United Kingdom from 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 29 January 2008 to Friday, 1 February 2008 Opening of the session 1 Election of the Chairman 2 Adoption of the agenda 3 Consideration of issues relating to the technical specifications and standards 4 Consideration of related issues for the timely establishment of the LRIT system 5 Any other business 6 Report to the Maritime Safety Committee ***
Circular letter No.2835 ANNEX 3 PROCEDURES GOVERNING THE SUPPORT BY IMO OF VISA APPLICATIONS Delegates or trainees invited by the Organization, and who require United Kingdom entry visas should, in the first instance, apply for a visa at the nearest British Consulate or Embassy and obtain reference numbers. The necessary documentation (in the case of delegates), such as copy of the IMO programme of meetings (usually issued during December/January each year); the original and relevant IMO official letter of invitation (usually issued some six months prior to the time the meeting is to convene at IMO); copy of the completed IMO Pre-Registration Form; nomination letter and note verbale from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must accompany United Kingdom visa applications. Delegates must be nominated by the Ministry of Transport or the National Maritime Administration. The nomination letter should be taken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare a note verbale to the British Embassy/High Commission. If upon following the above procedures, the delegates still have visa problems, then either the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Transport or the National Maritime Administration should communicate, on letterhead, the following details to the Head, Human Resources Services, requesting visa assistance and communicating to us the reasons, given by the British Embassy/High Commission, why the visas have been refused or may be refused. i ii iii First Name: Surname: Profession: Date of birth: Place of birth: Type of passport: Passport No: Place of issue: Date of issue: Valid until: Visa reference number: Date and place of visa application: Purposes of visit; and Duration of anticipated stay in the United Kingdom This exercise must be undertaken at least six weeks before the date on which the meeting is to be convened at IMO. IMO will then be in a position to support the visa applications accordingly and the visas may be issued in good time. Please fill in form and return to the IMO by fax at + 44 20 7587 3210 or by e-mail at visa@imo.org
INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION Meeting: Ad Hoc LRIT Group Session No.: First From: Tuesday, 29 January 2008 to: Friday, 1 February 2008 PRE-REGISTRATION FORM Attendee Name First Name: Last Name: Title (Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms/Other) Position Organization Delegation Attendee Status Representative Alternate Adviser Observer Number of copies required Individual documents required English only during the meeting Preferred address during the meeting Permanent Contact information: Name Job title Organization/Company Street line 1 Street line 2 City State/County Post Code/Zip Country Phone FAX Mobile phone E-mail Please fill in the blank fields and return the form to the IMO by Fax: +44 20 7587 3210 E-Mail: registration@imo.org