Companies operating at ports should raise their vigilance over the the threat of international terrorism.
This was the message from Ray Walker, chief officer of the Port of Liverpool police, addressing a special security seminar at the port, which handles timber from around the world..
He said tht there is still a lack of awareness about the implications of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS) which was inspired by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001 and comes into force worldwide in July 2004. It lays down the levels of security required from port and shipping operators.
Mr Walker said there is a considerable lack of awareness of the code and how it will impact upon the day to day business of international trade.
“It needs a change of culture within the ports and shipping industry to make this work – we have to ‘think terrorist’,” he advised.
More than 100 representatives of every element of the shipping and logistics industry, plus members of the armed forces and county police forces, attended the seminar at Liverpools’s Maritime Centre, Seaforth Dock.
Further presentations will be made to port users at the Mersey Docks’ ports of Sheerness and Chatham on the Medway this month.
