Legal registration of seamen in Skútan

The registration of seafarers is subject to the Act on the crews of ships, No. 82/2022.

The objective of the Act is to ensure the safety of crews, passengers and ships and to strengthen protection against marine pollution. This objective shall be achieved, inter alia, by providing for the legal registration of crew, see paragraph 3 of Article 1.

Legal registration is the legal registration of crew members on board ships through the Marine Registration System, cf. item 17 of Article 2.

The Marine Legal Records System is an electronic database that maintains legal registration of seafarers. It records the necessary information for the issue of seafarers certificates, including training, seagoing service and safety education. In addition, it includes information on certificates issued, the seaworthiness of ships listed in the ship register, the legal entries made on individual ships, the crew list, requirements for the minimum manning and non-manning of ships, exemptions, crew insurance, passenger permits for passenger ships engaged on regular voyages and passenger ships and passenger boats engaged on sight-seeing, excursion and fishing voyages, cf. Article 2, point 18.

Legal registration of seafarers

Article 13 Mariners' legal registration system

The Icelandic Transportation and Transportation Authority is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Marine Registration System.

Legal registration is done electronically. The Directorate of Communications shall oversee the allocation of access to the system of legal registration for registration of a particular ship upon application by the ship operator in accordance with the register. The Company may delegate the task of carrying out the registry to the master or other members of its staff. The operator may also request the Directorate of Communications to register the crew of the ship.

Information from the Marine Registration System shall be provided only to those with legally protected interests and shall comply with the provisions of the Act on the Protection of Privacy as regards the Processing of Personal Data on the Provision of Information. cf. item 18 of Article 2.

Article 14 Obligation of registration of laws.

No master may leave port unless all crew members are duly registered on the ship, have a valid certificate of competency or are exempted from the status for which they are legally registered, the ship holds a valid certificate of seaworthiness, the ship is manned in accordance with its size, engine power, operating conditions and outdoor activities, a confirmation that the crew member has received safety training in the Seafarers Accident Prevention School or by other means, and has a valid crew insurance for all those on board. This does not apply in an emergency situation.

The master shall ensure that at the time of the termination of any period of presence on board the ship the person concerned is dismissed from the register. The Transportation Office shall deregister a seafarer when the ship is no longer in seaworthy water, or when the ship''s crew insurance has expired or when his certificate of competency has expired. The Directorate of Communications shall notify the party in question that he has been deregistered.

If a Company neglects to maintain a valid life and accident insurance, it shall be liable for the payment of the compensation in question. If the Company is not found to be capable of paying such compensation, the Treasury shall be fully responsible for paying it.

Passengers or others on board ships other than passenger ships and passenger craft not considered as crew members shall be legally registered.

Article 18 Deviations from minimum manning

The Directorate of Communications may determine derogations from the provisions of Articles 16 and 17 on the minimum number of members of the ship''s stewardships and engineer officers on fishing vessels, patrol vessels and other vessels as appropriate, e.g. for technical equipment, type and/or tasks of a vessel, taking into account, inter alia, the workload which may be the result of the change.

The Icelandic Transportation Authority shall register its decisions in the Marine Registration System.

Article 30 Monitoring

The Icelandic Transportation Agency and the Coast Guard shall monitor compliance with this Act and regulations issued on its basis.

The Icelandic Transportation Agency, the Icelandic Coast Guard and other regulators may use the Marine Registration System for monitoring. Information may also be communicated electronically to the Maritime Shipping Watch Centre for its tasks and to the police, the Icelandic Coast Guard and the Transport Accident Investigation Committee when criminal cases, disappearances or transport accidents are investigated.

Employees of the Icelandic Coast Guard may board Icelandic vessels at sea as part of a port and check the legality of registration and identification of officers' rights, as well as whether other provisions of Article 28 are being observed.

Article 31 Service charges

The Icelandic Transport Agency may collect service charges for the purposes of this Act in accordance with Article 13 of the Act on the Icelandic Transport Agency, the Transport Administration, No. 119/2012. Service charges by the Icelandic Transportation Authority are enforceable without a prior court judgment or settlement, cf. Article 15 of the same Act.

The Directorate of Communications may charge a fee for access to the system of legal registration, legal registration, deregistration of a seafarer and registration of a time limit for the safety education of a seafarer. When determining fees, the cost of employee wages and operating costs for the maintenance and placement of the system of legal registration shall be used as a basis.

Furthermore, the Icelandic Transportation Agency may charge a fee for the issue of licences and voyage books, the endorsement of foreign certificates, the granting of exemptions and the issue of safety manning certificates under this Act. Such fees shall cover the cost of the Directorate of Transportation resulting from service. A fee shall also be paid in respect of costs incurred in connection with taking examinations and courses under this Act. Fees shall be fixed in the Institute's tariff.

Transport Agency tariff

Administrative fines

The Icelandic Coast Guard may levy administrative fines on a natural or legal person who violates or does not meet the conditions of the following provisions and rules established pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 14 on the duties of the master regarding the legal registration of crew members prior to detention in port and requirements for staffing and insurance, svr. Art. 32, para. 1, subparagraph d

Regulatory authorisation

Article 37 Regulation

The Minister shall make further provision in a regulation for:

8. Further implementation of the registration and its conditions, how to access legal registration by means of the system of legal registration and the use of electronic documents for that purpose, time limit for completing a maritime safety education course to be registered, how to access data and information from the system of legal registration to persons with legally protected interests and on monitoring the implementation of registration under Articles 13 and 14 For certain vessels, derogations from the provisions on mandatory registration of crews may be granted by regulation, e.g. to pilot boats, tugs, rescue ships and recreational vessels.

Regulation on the legal registration of seafarers, No 817/2010, as amended

(The Regulation is established on the basis of the older Act on the Legal Registration of Seafarers; a new Regulation is being prepared on the basis of the Act on the Crews of Ships, No. 82/2022):