14 January 2025

The MCA have now issued MGN 319 (M+F) Amendment 2 which covers the new standards.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will accept electronic chart systems complying with the Small Vessel Electronic Chart System (SV-ECS) performance standard, primarily for vessels under 24m.

Prior to the introduction of ‘Mini-ECDIS’, the precursor to ‘SV-ECS’, it was noted that there was a widespread use of chart plotting systems using privately produced electronic chart data within the fishing and small commercial vessel market. Such systems do not satisfy the international carriage requirements for charts.  The carriage requirements and associated costs and practicality of fitting an ECDIS were assessed as being prohibitive for small vessel operators and therefore a suitable alternative was deemed necessary.

Industry feedback resulted in the decision in 2024 to review the ‘Mini-ECDIS’ performance standard to ensure it remained relevant to modern operational requirements as well as future-proofing the system for potential wider use within the industry.

The MCA will accept the installation of SV-ECS complying with the SV-ECS performance standard from 1 July 2025. SV-ECS shall utilise Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) which have been published by an accepted National Hydrographic Office. 

The SV-ECS performance standard does not allow the use of Raster Navigational Charts (RNC) and therefore if a vessel is operating in an area with limited or no ENC coverage, Standard Nautical Charts (SNC), i.e. paper charts, are required for primary navigation. The use of S-57 Vector charts issued by commercial operators and not a National Hydrographic Office are not accepted as satisfying the chart carriage requirements.

A link to the full document can be found HERE.

British Marine members can get specific guidance and information by emailing technical@britishmarine.co.uk