Non-financial performance measures

Consistent with the Department of Finance’s Resource Management Guide 131 Developing good performance information, AMSA reviews its non-financial performance measures annually to ensure they remain relevant and fit-for-purpose.

Our measures are predominantly at an outcome level and measure the achievement of our purpose and vision - safe and clean seas, saving lives.

This year also includes some measures that demonstrate our performance against the three new principles of regulator best practice described in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s (DPMC) Regulator Performance Guide (April 2021):

Continuous improvement and building trust: regulators adopt a whole-of-system perspective, continuously improving their performance, capability and culture, to build trust and confidence in Australia’s regulatory settings.
Risk-based and data-driven: regulators maintain essential safeguards, using data and digital technology to manage risks proportionately to minimise regulatory burden and to support those they regulate to comply and grow.
Collaboration and engagement: regulators are transparent and responsive, implementing regulations in a modern and collaborative way.

Currently reported through a separate process, from 2021-22 onwards regulator performance will be an integral part of our overall non-financial performance reporting under the PGPA Act. This is a transition year, and we will incrementally introduce more Regulatory Performance measures over coming years.

We have also included an efficiency and effectiveness measure related to oil spill response. We will be incrementally introducing more efficiency and effectiveness measures as our reporting systems mature.

To help readers follow year-on-year performance any changes to measures are explained in the rationale and footnotes.

AMSA is developing a measures library which provides the detailed evidence base for reporting, including measure owners, definitions, targets, tolerances, data sources and calculation methods.

Safe seas

#	Measure	Target	Method	System¹	RPF principle
1	Safety of foreign-flagged ships and Australian-flagged ships (under the Navigation Act 2012) operating in Australian waters is demonstrated through the proportion of very serious and serious incident reports to total port arrivals².	≤0.5%	Quantitative	ShipSys	2. Risk based & data driven
1	Rationale: Indicates whether standards are being met. Marine incidents are classified by AMSA into one of three severity levels: (1) very serious; (2) serious; and (3) less serious. Several factors are considered by AMSA to decide whether an incident is deemed very serious and/or serious. These include, fatalities, serious injuries, loss of vessel, damage to vessel and equipment; serious pollution and other incidents that result in serious consequences (i.e. fire; grounding; collisions etc.) Incidents are categorised individually.
2	Port State control (PSC) risk-based inspection targets are met.	100%	Quantitative	ShipSys	2. Risk based & data driven
2	Rationale: Demonstrates that AMSA’s PSC inspections are focused on higher risk ships which ensures resources are concentrated on those ships that pose the greatest threat to safety and the environment.
3	Improvement in the safety of domestic commercial vessels is demonstrated through:
3.1	The average number of seafarer fatalities on domestic commercial vessels since 2013 trends towards zero	trending to zero	Quantitative	Incident reporting system	1. Continuous improvement & building trust 2. Risk based & data driven
3.2	The average number of passenger fatalities on domestic commercial vessels since 2013 trends towards zero	trending to zero	Quantitative	Incident reporting system	1. Continuous improvement & building trust 2. Risk based & data driven
	Rationale: Both measures indicate whether AMSA’s regulatory regime and compliance monitoring are increasingly preventing serious safety incidents. The monitoring of this data focuses AMSA on regulatory changes to those areas which will have the greatest impact and our compliance activities to the highest risk operations. Measure 3.1 has been updated to show the average since July 2013 (when AMSA assumed full responsibility for service delivery) and trend. Previously the measure reported on absolute numbers of fatalities during the reporting period. The measure is related to deaths associated directly with the operation of the vessel, for example, fatalities from a vessel sinking are included, but deaths from natural causes are not. Measure 3.2 has also been updated – see 3.1 above.

^{1 Shipsys, which is the IT system used to manage vessel and cargo inspections, a range of approvals, certificates and determinations, etc. vessel surveys and marine incidents.}
^{NEMO (National Environmental Marine Operations) system. This is a web-based customisable incident management system, based on Noggin OCA (Organise Communicate, Act), that is designed to manage and monitor all national pollution and casualty incidents.}
^{NEXUS. This system is designed to provide operational Search and Rescue (SAR) staff with the ability to communicate with other SAR authorities including SAR crew, air traffic control, state and territory authorities.}
^{Incident reporting and recoding system (SharePoint) is used to collect and collate data on passenger fatalities.}
^{2 Portfolio Budget Statement (PBS) measure.}

Clean seas

#	Measure	Target	Method	System	RPF principle
4	Reducing trend in the number of significant pollution incidents	Trending to zero	Quantitative	ShipSys/NEMO	1. Continuous improvement & building trust
4	Rationale: A reducing trend in the number of significant pollution incidents is an indicator of the success of AMSA's preventative measures across its operations (e.g. ship inspection, safety education, regulation) which all contribute to preventing marine pollution. A significant pollution incident is now defined as a Level 2 (or higher) incident in accordance with the National Plan for Maritime Environmental Emergencies
5	Timeliness of response to significant oil spill incidents ^{3, 4}	Within 4 hours of report received	Quantitative	NEMO and audit reports	Not applicable
5	Rationale: The time taken to ready AMSA oil spill response equipment and response personnel for mobilisation to a Level 2 (or higher) oil spill incident is an indicator of the effectiveness and efficiency of AMSA's marine pollution response arrangements.

^{3 Efficiency and effectiveness measure.}
^{4 PBS measure.}

Saving lives

#	Measure	Target	Method	System	RPF principle
6	Save as many lives as possible of those at risk ^{5, 6}	100%	Quantitative	Nexus	Not applicable
Rationale: Measures the effectiveness of AMSA's overall search and rescue coordination capability and management of search and rescue assets to respond to persons at risk within the Australian search and rescue region. Each search and rescue incident reported to AMSA is triaged to assess the requirement to respond to a life at risk. Sometimes the assessment concludes that the life has already been lost, or AMSA is unable to determine if a life is at risk, i.e. false beacon activations. For those incidents which are assessed as requiring a response (i.e. a life is identified as being ‘at risk’) it is important that AMSA measures the performance of resources available to effect a rescue. AMSA’s intention is to save all lives at risk (100 per cent). In practicality, the circumstances surrounding individual incidents—e.g. severe medical conditions requiring specialist treatment, bad weather—affect the possibility of success of a search and rescue response. This reality is reflected in the previous results reported by AMSA for this measure, ranging between 95–99 per cent annually.

Measure

Target

Method

System

RPF principle

Save as many lives as possible of those at risk ^{5, 6}

100%

Quantitative

Nexus

Not applicable

Rationale: Measures the effectiveness of AMSA's overall search and rescue coordination capability and management of search and rescue assets to respond to persons at risk within the Australian search and rescue region.

Each search and rescue incident reported to AMSA is triaged to assess the requirement to respond to a life at risk. Sometimes the assessment concludes that the life has already been lost, or AMSA is unable to determine if a life is at risk, i.e. false beacon activations. For those incidents which are assessed as requiring a response (i.e. a life is identified as being ‘at risk’) it is important that AMSA measures the performance of resources available to effect a rescue.
AMSA’s intention is to save all lives at risk (100 per cent). In practicality, the circumstances surrounding individual incidents—e.g. severe medical conditions requiring specialist treatment, bad weather—affect the possibility of success of a search and rescue response. This reality is reflected in the previous results reported by AMSA for this measure, ranging between 95–99 per cent annually.

^{5 Minor grammatical change from previous measure: ‘from those’ changed to ‘of those’.}
^{6 PBS measure.}

Regulatory performance

#	Regulator best practice	Target	Method	System
Principle 1: Continuous improvement and building trust
7	Demonstrated through: Measures 3.1 and 3.2 and 4; as well as:	Various ⁷	Quantitative and qualitative	Feedback module Customer Relationship Module (CRM) ISO Quality Management System
7.1	Satisfaction with the resolution of inquiries through AMSA Connect
7.2	General stakeholder feedback
7.3	Maintenance of ISO certification
7.4	Case studies of business process improvement projects
	Rationale: Responsiveness, resolution of issues and inquiries, clarity of guidance and simple access to quality, consistent material and interactions build trust in a regulator. Information from stakeholders through reported issues, difficulties and inquiries, assists AMSA to refine its guidance, understand industry concerns and improve accessibility of materials and systems. This in turn, demonstrates we understand the issues, are listening and evolving our systems and capabilities to improve. A focus on continuous improvement is a key requirement of ISO certification, evidenced by case studies.
Principle 2: Risk based, and data driven
	See measures 1 – 3.2
Principle 3: Collaboration and engagement
8	Demonstrated through:		Various ⁸	Quantitative and qualitative	Feedback modules Survey tools Mail Chimp
8.1	Number and duration of consultations available
8.2	Channels used, e.g. online/face-to-face
8.3	Engagement rates, e.g. email open rates
8.4	Analysis of consultation feedback, and publishing outcomes
8.5	Results of targeted surveys⁹
8.6	Outcomes of education and compliance campaigns
	Rationale: It is important that AMSA provides stakeholders with the opportunity to influence regulation that impacts on them through open, transparent and timely consultation. It is also important that AMSA provides clear, up-to-date guidance and information so our regulated community understand their obligations and responsibilities, which in turn encourages voluntary compliance. Feedback from our stakeholders helps us to improve, including understanding how effective and practical the regulation was to implement and apply.

^{7 Each demonstration activity is different. Not all have quantifiable targets currently or are suitable candidates for quantifiable targets. e.g. AMSA Connect satisfaction target is 90%, but there is no target for stakeholder feedback (see measures library).}

^{8 See footnote 7}

^{9 the Regulator Performance Framework survey (measure 6.2 in our 2020-21 Plan) is under review pending confirmation of the new Regulator Performance Guide.}

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