Contemporary safety literature recognizes that error reporting - reporting of hazards, near-misses and incidents is important in the development of safety in high risk industries such as shipping - where the success of such reporting programs has been limited. Reporting is integral to the concept of “continuous improvement” as envisaged by the International Safety Management Code. However, shipping - like other industries - suffers from considerable under-reporting. At the same time, many Safety managers find positive correlation between numbers of such reports and shipboard safety, and to encourage reporting, many follow a mandatory reporting system. This study attempted to understand whether increasing numbers of submitted error reports does result in a consequent decrease in incidents/accidents, thereby validating this premise. The study was limited to the fleet of only one shipping company, and to the quantitative analysis of the error reports; not the content or quality of such reports. To achieve this, annual compiled error reports from across all fleet vessels of one shipping company were collected. This company had made a significant increase in the numbers of reports to be submitted by vessels in its fleet thereby presenting this opportunity. These reports were analyzed using Pearson correlation to determine any statistically significant correlations between numbers of hazards and near-misses reported, and recorded incidents/accidents. Analysis of the data showed that, from a quantitative point of view, the mandated increase in the number of reports did not result in a decrease in the numbers of near misses or incidents/accidents. It was concluded that merely increasing the number of reports may not improve safety performance, but may lead to the submission of reports just to meet requirements thereby devaluing the entire process. Companies should look at more effective ways through which the safety culture can be enhanced and improve on-board safety performance.

Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Importance of near-miss and hazard reports
    2.1 The problem of under reporting
    2.2 Mandatory versus Voluntary reporting
    2.3 Are More Reports of Near-Misses and Hazards Indicative of an Effective Safety culture?
    2.4 The Effectiveness of Incentives and Quotas
    2.5 Content Issues with Near-Miss Reports
3. Methodology
4. Data analysis and results
5. Conclusion
6. Limitations and Directions for future research
References

• Bhattacharya, Yogendra(University of Petroleum & Energy Studies)