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“Fit and proper person” is a common term that describes an assessment of an individual’s suitability for a specific occupation or privilege.
A fit and proper person check is required as part of an approval process for many occupations or leisure activities, such as bus and taxi drivers, pilots, social workers, teachers, medical staff, school hostel managers, people holding a NZ Skydiving Association certificate, people with a firearms licence and many more. It is also required for people who hold maritime documents in the maritime industry.
The Maritime Transport Act 1994 requires the Director of Maritime New Zealand to undertake a fit and proper person assessment for everyone who wishes to hold a maritime document.
A maritime document is any licence, permit, certificate or other document issued by the Director under section 41 of the Act and includes certificates of competency, safe ship management certificates, surveyor recognitions and safe crewing documents.
Anyone who is likely to control the excise of the privileges of the maritime document, for example:
The Director of Maritime New Zealand is responsible for public safety on board ships. The fit and proper person check is an important legal tool that the Director can use to assess the suitability of people who hold maritime documents.
Not necessarily. Each case is assessed on its own merits. The assessment is robust and fair.
If you provide false information or omit relevant information you commit an offence under the Maritime Transport Act. The penalty that may be imposed is imprisonment for up to 12 months or a fine up to $5000.
The Director of Maritime New Zealand is required by law to protect the confidentiality of the information you have supplied.
When you apply to Maritime New Zealand to obtain a maritime document (ie any licence, permit, SSM certificate or other document issued by the Director of Maritime New Zealand) you will be asked to complete a Fit and Proper Person Form. The form requires you to complete four sections: personal information, honesty, criminal conviction/transport offence history and declaration.
Completion of the section which asks for details of your criminal conviction/transport offence history will be mandatory from 31 January 2009. Until then, you do not need to provide this information, however you will need to answer the questions in all other sections of the form.
The criminal conviction/transport offence history section requires you to provide official records from the appropriate agencies in all countries you have lived in for more than 12 months within the last 5 years. For New Zealand residents you need to obtain reports from the Ministry of Justice and the New Zealand Transport Agency (formerly Land Transport New Zealand). The form tells you how to do this. Please note that such reports will take some time to obtain - up to 4 to 6 weeks for the Ministry of Justice and 10 working days for the New Zealand Transport Agency.
The completed forms are to be sent to the Director of Maritime New Zealand at PO Box 27006, Wellington 6141.
If you are applying for an SSM certificate you can submit the completed Fit and Proper Person Form via your SSM company by placing it in a sealed envelop.
Maritime New Zealand does not charge an additional fee to process a fit and proper person application.
Yes. A condition of every maritime document is that the holder of the document continues to be fit and proper. You are expected to inform Maritime New Zealand of any matters that may affect your fit and proper person status. The system relies on the honesty and integrity of document holders.
If the circumstances do not change it lasts for the life of the maritime document.
For example, the Local Launch Operator Certificate of Competency requires revalidation after 5 years which means a new fit and proper person assessment is required.
For SSM certificates a fit and proper assessment will be required when the SSM certificate is re-issued.
For businesses that have more than one ship, the criminal conviction/transport offence history section of the fit and proper person assessment will be required at intervals prescribed by the Director. However the personal information, honesty and declaration will be required every time an SSM Certificate is issued and reissued.
The Fit and Proper Person Form has been revised as at 1 July 2009. The new form clarifies the requirements and asks for additional contact information to allow the streamlining of the process.
Fit and proper person form [PDF: 50Kb, 6 pages]
