Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival

Narrowboatworld: The Boat Safety Scheme to go private and cost of certificates to double
The Boat Safety Scheme, that overlooks the safety of boats, is leaving the umbrella of British Waterways and becoming self-financing from 1st April, and costs will increase dramatically.

From this date the cost of certificates to examiners will double, from the present £11.25 to £24, excluding Vat.

It was ten years ago that the scheme was first launched to support the licensing requirements of the Environment Agency and British Waterways.

In its ten year existence, the Boat Safety Scheme has provided safety advice and information to navigation authorities and individual boaters, operated a verification service through its examiners and continues to develop safety checks as modern safety principles have evolved.

Commenting on the move to become self-financing, Graham Watts, Boat Safety Scheme Manager, explains:

“It’s always been the intention for the scheme to eventually stand on its own two feet when it comes to meeting the running costs of this important safety aspect of the inland waterways. The Scheme won’t plan to make a profit, but nor does it aim to make a loss, it just simply aims to cover its costs and continue to offer credible and improved customer service to all navigation authorities and thousands of individual inland waterways boaters.”

Since being established in 1996 the scheme has been supported financially by both the Environment Agency and British Waterways. In the last financial year this support, both as direct assistance and assistance in kind, equalled nearly £200,000.

We are told the Boat Safety Scheme has reviewed its work over the last 18 months and 'identified areas where it can operate with ongoing greater efficiencies while ensuring that quality assurance systems and administrative processes remain robust'.