Singapore Near Miss Reporting System

The Singapore Near Miss Reporting System is a confidential online channel for sea-space users to report maritime near misses and share lessons from close calls. Its purpose is to create shared safety lessons across the maritime community. The National Maritime Safety at Sea Council (NMSSC) and Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) launched it on 17 August 2026 at the opening of Singapore Safety@Sea Week. MPA describes the system as a partnership-based safety-learning mechanism, not a replacement for statutory incident reporting, an automatic enforcement process or a guarantee that a reported event caused no harm (MPA, 17 August 2026).

How the reporting channel works

The system gives sea-space users a simple online route to report near misses without fear of reprisal. It is modelled on the Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP), an internationally recognised confidential reporting framework. CHIRP independently receives submissions and provides anonymised information to the NMSSC; the Council then distils key safety lessons for sharing with the wider maritime community (MPA, 17 August 2026; MPA, Safety@Sea Week remarks, 17 August 2026).

This structure separates reporting from lesson-sharing: CHIRP is the independent recipient of submissions, while NMSSC receives anonymised information and communicates broader learning. The public launch material does not publish a numerical reporting target, a mandatory reporting duty, a user-eligibility list, a case-resolution service level or a promise that reports will remain wholly inaccessible to all parties. Those details should not be inferred from the word “confidential” (MPA, 17 August 2026).

Place in Singapore's maritime-safety system

The reporting system is one part of a wider 2026 Safety@Sea initiative. MPA also announced operationalisation of the Integrated Port Operations Command, Control and Communications (IPOC) system, which brings live data from multiple sources into a real-time view for MPA officers, and a memorandum of understanding with Ocean Infinity to test and evaluate autonomous and remote marine operations in Singapore port waters. Those are separate operational-awareness and technology-trial measures; they are not alternate names for the near-miss reporting channel (MPA, 17 August 2026).

The system also differs from ordinary emergency response and formal investigation. Its stated purpose is learning from near misses and sharing anonymised lessons across the maritime community. It therefore supports a preventive safety culture alongside operational controls, professional duties and any applicable reporting or investigation requirements. The 2026 launch does not by itself create a new maritime licence, remove existing duties, or make every near miss legally reportable through this one channel (MPA, Safety@Sea Week remarks, 17 August 2026).