Robert Ashdown, IACS Secretary General
IACS, the membership organisation for the world’s leading classification societies, has published its 2025 Annual Review, which showcases the central role played by IACS and its Members in supporting safety standards and driving technical innovation in the maritime industry.
The report identifies many areas of progress, including IACS’s ongoing role in supporting industry decarbonisation objectives and the IMO’s efforts to balance its environmental ambitions with safety. Through it’s Safe Decarbonisation Panel, IACS is supporting progress in respect of a number of alternative fuels, whilst remaining neutral on any preferred option. This includes the development of Resolutions on the safe use of alternative fuels which underpin IMO regulations, or the classification rules of each IACS Member.
IACS’s work on maritime digitalisation is also highlighted in the Annual Review. Through the Safe Digital Transformation Panel, IACS has identified and focused work on several priorities, including data quality, cybersecurity and predictive maintenance. IACS has developed Unified Requirements on cyber resilience of new ships and Recommendations for existing vessels, establishing a minimum set of cybersecurity controls as part of safety management systems. IACS has also contributed to the innovative application of digital technologies in other areas of classification activity, such as the use of 3D models for the technical review of hull design, structural strength and integrity.
The report also discusses IACS’s extensive and ongoing programme of engagement with wider industry – including intergovernmental bodies, industry associations, and international standards bodies, with flag States and port State Authorities around the world, and most significantly, with the IMO, where IACS works closely with the Secretariat and Member States. In 2025, IACS and its Members authored 37 independent submissions to IMO, plus a further 20 co-sponsored papers.
A further focus for IACS is enhancing standards of surveying excellence and meeting the evolving expectations of classification societies at a time of industry transformation, as explained by Robert Ashdown, IACS Secretary General:
“Over the past year, the collective work of the IACS membership has again illustrated how class can contribute uniquely to maritime safety and environmental protection, while embracing the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging technologies and fuels.
“As classification societies move beyond being simply custodians of compliance to being strategic partners in maritime transformation, IACS is supporting this evolution in its Members’ businesses to meet the expectations of regulators and the industry. This not only encompasses the traditional activities of design, construction and survey verification, but also assists their roles as active enablers of transformation in the face of digitalisation, decarbonisation and new technologies.”
2025 saw progress on the important issue of surveyor safety, Led by the work of IACS’s Expert Group on Safety of Surveyors (EG SoS). This included new Recommendations on safety standards at work for surveyors and confined space safe practice. Together, these measures deliver a consolidated approach to surveyor safety that aligns IACS with ISO 45001 principles, IMO instruments and industry best practices, and that advance a culture of safety through all classification activities.
The Review explores many other areas of technical and safety progress where IACS has made a significant contribution. These include the development of the goal-based IMO Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) Code, and the multi-year programme to modernise the IACS Common Structural Rules (CSR). The Review also highlights the work of IACS to address fires in ship machinery spaces by reinforcing fire safety standards, the publication of updated welding high heat input welding requirements for marine and offshore structures.
In 2025, IACS published 78 new or revised Unified Requirements, Procedural Requirements, Unified Interpretations, and Recommendations for implementation by its Members, and the Annual Review provides a full list of these, as well as those which have been withdrawn. It also includes the ‘Class Report 2025’, which contains data on the global IACS fleet, broken down by the 12 IACS Members.
