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FAQ: Updated Port State Control (PSC) Inspection Deficiency Severity Review Process and Model Updates (Internal Only)

Purpose of this FAQ:

This document supports the Business Development and Customer Experience teams in handling queries about changes to how Port State Control (PSC) Inspection deficiencies affect the Safety Score — specifically the move from quantity-based to severity-weighted scoring, and related model improvements.

 

 

A. Background: Safety Score and Why RightShip is Making Changes

1. What is RightShip Safety Score?

Since its launch in February 2021, the RightShip Safety Score has become a vital tool for stakeholders across the supply chain, providing a clear snapshot of a vessel’s safety performance. It is intended to help our risk assessment customers gain an initial perspective on the operational performance of a potential vessel as part of a comprehensive due diligence process, while simultaneously encouraging shipowners to invest in improved processes and technologies that make the entire supply chain safer. Today the RightShip Safety Score has three main objectives which combine technology advancements, expert review and industry feedback:

  • Transparent: The Safety Score has been designed to provide a clear and concise explanation of the elements that factor into the score and outcome.

  • Clarity: The model has been carefully designed to make it simple to identify changes in ratings

  • Accurate: It provides a much clearer view of both the positive and negative performance of a vessel in the due diligence process. Vessel owners and operators are provided with actionable steps to improve safety and to benchmark against other vessels in the world fleet.

The Safety Score is made up of 6 subscores, each with their own impact on the overall result that are addressed to deliver an accurate outcome. Each subscore focuses on various risk areas which are weighted and combine to create an overarching Safety Score. The score is based on historical data from the last five years across many safety considerations.

 

B. Defining Severity: The Methodology Behind It

2. Why have changes been made to RightShip’s PSC Inspection deficiency subscore calculations?

The current Safety Score framework evaluates PSC Inspection deficiencies by counting the total number of deficiencies identified during PSC inspections.

By evolving the system to incorporate the severity of deficiencies—not just their quantity – RightShip aims to create a scoring system that is fairer, more accurate and more explainable.

 

3. What changes have been made to RightShip’s PSC Inspection Deficiency?

RightShip is introducing severity grading for all PSC Inspection deficiencies. The PSC Inspection review process will now incorporate assignment of severity levels—High, Medium, or Low—for every deficiency.

Severity

 

Urgency

Impact

High

Deficiencies that pose a clear danger to the ship or persons on board or present an unreasonable threat of harm to the marine environment if it were allowed to proceed to sea unrectified.

These can include absence or non-compliance of principal equipment or arrangements, substantial deterioration of the ship or its equipment, lack of crew proficiency especially with essential operational procedures, insufficient manning/certification, serious breaches of MLC, and serious failures of the ship’s safety management system as implemented.

Must be addressed immediately or at least prior to departure.

These deficiencies can lead to significant events such as death or serious injury, fire or serious failure to control/extinguish it, grounding, pollution breaches, structural failure, and ship detention or banning.

Medium

Deficiencies that fall between High Severity and Low Severity – they do not pose an immediate danger to the ship or persons on board nor present an unreasonable threat of harm to the marine environment if it were allowed to proceed to sea unrectified, and nor are they considered minor issues or administrative matters.

These can include absence or less serious non-compliance of equipment or arrangements, less serious breaches of MLC, and failures of the ship’s safety management system as implemented which are not considered to require immediate auditing and correction.

Should be addressed promptly to avoid further potential risks occurring.

While not necessarily immediately dangerous or threatening, these deficiencies/findings can compromise the ship’s operational safety and/or compliance over time.

Low

Deficiencies that that are minor issues or administrative matters. They pose minimal or no danger to the ship or persons on board nor present an unreasonable threat of harm to the marine environment.

These can include minor non-compliance of a ship’s equipment or arrangements which can be easily rectified or of which rectification is not considered urgent (or where redundancy, exemptions or other approved alternative arrangements are in place to enable the ship’s safe operation pending rectification), non-compliance of a ship’s non-critical equipment or arrangements, administrative errors in ship’s or seafarers’ certification or records, minor breaches of MLC which are not considered to affect health or welfare of seafarers, and minor failures of the ship’s safety management system which are easily rectified.

Rectification is generally not urgent. Some deficiencies of a more important nature may still be considered low severity if they are easily and urgently rectified; e.g. incomplete logbook entries, blown navigation light bulbs, etc.

These deficiencies have minimal impact on safety, performance, or crew welfare, but were still considered by the PSC Officer as warranting rectification through a deficiency to maintain vessel standards and compliance.

4. How did RightShip define these severity categories?

RightShip’s Subject Matter Experts (including a former AMSA inspector) conducted an expert review of ~2,000 real-world PSC Inspection deficiencies. Each deficiency was graded by unanimous consensus as High, Medium, or Low. The team created 300+ example cases across 25 categories to define and train the severity model.

 

5. Do the new PSC Inspection deficiency severity definitions align with the RightShip Inspection Finding severity definitions?

In general, yes. Both use a High, Medium and Low severity scale, but at this time the exact definitions differ slightly as RightShip Inspections include both Regulatory and Industry Standard items.

 

6. How does the PSC Inspection deficiency score system work?

Each PSC Inspection outcome is evaluated and contributes to the PSC Inspection Subscore which then contributes to the vessel’s Safety Score.

The new calculation for each PSC Inspection outcome with deficiencies is:

This then provides a value which is combined with other PSC Inspection outcomes over the past 5 years, with allowance for a decay factor, to provide a vessels PSC Inspection subscore.

 

7. How have Port/Country/MoU PSC Inspection deficiency averages been calculated and how will they be applied and how will they be updated?

Port average values for each severity category will initially be computed using the default severity rules.

As the new closeout process rolls out and reviewed severities start becoming available, these averages will progressively be refined and recalculated using the reviewed severity submitted during PSC Inspection closeouts — resulting in improved accuracy over time.

8. Do Port/Country/MoU PSC Inspection deficiency severity averages account for specific vessel type?

No. Not at this time, but that is something that RightShip is reviewing to understand if vessel types can and/or should be accounted for within PSC Inspection deficiency severity averages in the future.

 

C. The PSC Inspection Review Process

9. How does the deficiency review process work now?

  • PSC Inspection deficiency data is uploaded to the RightShip Platform

  • A default severity is assigned based on Action or Deficiency Code, if no codes are available, High severity is applied by default

  • When Ship Manager closeouts are submitted (Initial Forms A&B, RCA, CA, PA & Supporting Evidence)AI reviews and recommends a severity

  • A RightShip SME reviews all AI suggestions and makes the final call

 

10. Does the quality of a PSC Inspection closeout submission affect a vessel’s PSC Inspection?

The quality of PSC Inspection closeout is not currently accounted for within PSC Inspection Subscore calculations. However, in cases where closeout submissions are less than adequate follow-up will always be required. This will delay vetting outcomes and can lead to severity being classified with limited context which could result in higher levels of severity.

 

11. How will RightShip assign severity for PSC Inspection deficiencies when the PSC Inspection Report Form A&B has not been provided?

When determining the initial severity RightShip has limited information and uses default severity values that are based on the PSC Inspection deficiency Action Code provided by the PSC Inspector. If the Action Code is unavailable the specific Deficiency Code is used. If neither is available a deficiency is assigned a default severity of High. Once a vessel’s DOC Company provides their detailed closeout (which must include Initial PSC Inspection Report Form A&B, explanation with Root Cause Analysis, details of Corrective and Preventative Actions and supporting information) the RightShip AI model extracts all relevant information and provides a severity suggestion, which is then reviewed by the RightShip Subject Matter Expert.

This is another reason why RightShip actively encourages vessel DOC Companies to provide detailed and timely closeout submissions for all PSC Inspections that have deficiencies as the root cause analysis and corrective action plans gives us the full picture to assign the right severity level.

 

12. When will changes take effect and when will PSC Inspection Deficiency severity be included within a vessel’s Safety Score?

All PSC inspections conducted on or after 20 August 2025 will be processed through the PSC Inspection Deficiency Severity Framework. The applicability of the severity framework is determined solely by the PSC inspection date, not the date the deficiencies are recorded on the platform. Therefore, any PSC deficiencies uploaded after 20th August 2025, but linked to inspections conducted before that date, will not be subject to the severity framework.

 

D. AI’s Role in the New Process

13. Why is AI being used in the new review process?

AI helps improve:

  • Consistency: Applying same logic to similar deficiencies across global ports.

  • Speed: Faster turnaround times for severity reviews.

  • Transparency: Data-driven, evidence-based severity assessments.

  • Scalability: Ability to process increasing volumes of PSC Inspection data efficiently.

 

14. How does AI provide deficiency severity rating suggestions?

Following an extended period of detailed testing the AI model has been trained to analyse:

  • The nature of the deficiency (e.g., safety-related, environmental, documentation).

  • Risk severity based on detailed severity grading criteria (as outlined in question 5).

  • Historical outcomes from similar deficiencies.

  • Inspection context, such as detention or multiple deficiencies.

  • Compliance with international regulations.

AI suggests a severity level (High, Medium, Low), which is reviewed and confirmed by a RightShip human Subject Matter Expert.

 

15. Is the AI decision final?

No. AI provides a recommendation only. A RightShip human Subject Matter Expert conducts a final review and retains discretion over the final severity classification. This human-in-the-loop approach ensures AI is used as a tool, not a decision-maker.

 

16. How does RightShip ensure data privacy and compliance when using AI?

Please refer to RightShip’s AI policy: https://rightship.com/rightship-approach-responsible-ai-use

 

E. Human Review, Appeals & Manual Input

17. Can severity classification be appealed?

RightShip regularly reviews and refines our approach to ensure consistency and fairness. If you believe a severity level was incorrectly assigned, you may submit a request with supporting documentation to info@rightship.com. Our team will assess the information provided—either as part of our ongoing case-by-case reviews or through our broader periodic reassessments, depending on the nature of the request.

 

18. Are there deficiencies that won’t affect Safety Score?

Yes — in three cases:

  • Invalid (e.g. not a breach of an applicable regulation)

  • Fully in hand (exemptions granted and documented)

  • Incident-related (already captured with an Incident record)

In unclear cases, RightShip applies a severity classification rather than marking it as “Not Affecting Safety Score”.

19. Will this new process affect vessel Safety Scores or vetting outcomes?

PSC Inspection performance has always been closely connected with Safety Score and vetting outcomes. As we transition to more accurate assessment of a vessel’s PSC Inspection performance the accuracy of PSC Inspection Subscore calculations will improve which may result in some changes to Safety Score. It should be recognised that a high number of High-Risk deficiencies may also impact the likelihood of a positive vetting outcome.

 

20. What changes have been made to the way the PSC Inspection performance data is displayed on the RightShip Platform?

Within the Vessel Subscores option under the SAFETY SCORE tab, the "Better, Median, and Worse" labels have been removed from the Y-axis.

PSC Inspection records with Nil Deficiencies will now appear at the top in a green bubble. PSC Inspection records with deficiencies are shown as a bubble with a relative value on a position on the Y-Axis.

Further information will be available for each PSC Inspection record (bubble). When the user clicks on the bubble they are presented with further information related to the PSC Inspection record, with Severity Impact and Relative Performance.

21. Will PSC Detention performance continue to be a separate factor within the Safety Score calculation?

Yes, PSC Detention performance will remain a separate factor within the Safety Score calculation.

With the introduction of severity in the PSC Subscore, all detainable deficiencies will default to high severity. However, this setup also accommodates industry feedback regarding cases where inspectors may raise detainable deficiencies unjustly. Once closeout documents are submitted, these cases can be reviewed, and the severity can be adjusted accordingly. This review mechanism ensures that the model remains fair and transparent.