This was a full length eight-day meeting of the Committee and the first meeting since the pandemic to be conducted as a physical meeting in the IMO building and was very well attended. Remote access was also possible. The Chair was Mrs Mayte Medina of the USA and there was again a very heavy workload but the easier meeting arrangements facilitated very good progress to be made including dealing with the backlog after the years of remote working.

The previous meeting of the sub-committee on Navigation, Communications, Search and Rescue (NCSR) held in June had considered difficulties raised by Ukraine of managing Search and Rescue operations in warzone areas and requested developing suitable provisions at this meeting. This was achieved with the drafting of a resolution to remind Member States of their responsibilities under the SOLAS and SAR Conventions in the context of armed conflicts.

Work continued on Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) towards developing a MASS Code for cargo ships. A Correspondence Group reported on its work and a meeting had been held of a Joint MSC/LEG/FAL working group incorporating the Legal and Facilitation Committees. It is intended that the Joint working group will now meet twice a year and the Correspondence Group will continue with its work. 

A new resolution was agreed on Recommended cooperation to ensure the safety of life at sea, the rescue of persons in distress at sea end the safe disembarkation of survivors.

A new SOLAS chapter XV was adopted on Safety measures for ships carrying industrial personnel together with an associated Code.

The previous meeting of NCSR had considered the application by China for the recognition of the BeiDou Message Service System (BDMSS) for use in the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). A technical assessment had been performed by the International Maritime Satellite Organization (IMSO) but it had not been possible to complete this for lack of an on site inspection which had not been possible due to the pandemic. An on site inspection had been conducted subsequently which was reported to the meeting. The meeting decided to accept this and agreed to recognise the Chinese system. There are still issues regarding the radio frequencies however to be resolved before BDMSS will be able to operate along side Inmarsat and Iridium.

The NCSR meeting had also completed revised performance standards for the electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) to facilitate the introduction of the new S-100 electronic charts. An input to this meeting from China suggested deferring the approval of 1 January 2029 as the mandatory application date of the new ECDIS. However this was not accepted by the committee.

New work items were agreed for a revision of SOLAS V/23 on safety of pilot transfer arrangements, and a review of SOLAS IV/5 on provision of radiocommunication services. A proposal to amend SOLAS in order to allow coastal States to receive Long Range Information and Tracking (LRIT) information free of charge was not accepted. As a consequence of a report of the UN Panel of Experts regarding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), NCSR was tasked to carry out a review of security standards for preventing the tampering of AIS transponders used to disguise illicit oil deliveries.

The meeting noted the recent death of Christian Breinholt of Denmark who was MSC chair from 2012 to 2015. The meeting bade farewell to Captain Moin Ahmed the Director-General of IMSO who was ending his term after 8 years. The new Director-General will be Laurent Parente of Vanuatu.

The next meeting has been scheduled for 31 May to 9 June 2023. A meeting of the IMO/ITU Joint Experts Group has been scheduled for 5 to 9 December 2022. The next meeting of NCSR is scheduled for 8 to 17 May 2023.