Contact us

Use this form to get in touch with the Boat Safety Scheme team.

You can use it below to ask about:

We encourage information sharing!

  • Share information about:
  • Incidents of boat fires
  • Carbon monoxide poisoning
  • Close calls that you or your family may have had

Pictures, documents and other files can be uploaded if you think it will help explain and illustrate your comment, query or incident report.

Please be advised that due to the ongoing high level of enquiries, there may some delays in responding to your query. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause, but we are working through each email, call and contact form as quickly and efficiently as we can.

Janine - Customer Service Officer

Upload relevant files. Accectable file types are PDF, DOCX, TXT, PNG, JPG

Search: If you cannot find what you are looking for, try the search page.

Our contact details

The main address of the BSS is :

Boat Safety Scheme,
c/o Canal & River Trust Registered office:
National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, CH65 4FW

Tel: 0333 202 1000

Pictures, documents and other files can be uploaded if you think it will help explain and illustrate your comments, queries or incident reports.

Are you thinking about becoming an Examiner? 

'Buying a boat?'

Are you thinking of buying a boat? If you have never owned a boat before, try this website for 'newbies' www.onthewater.co.uk for people thinking about having fun afloat.

Essential information for potential liveaboards can be found at www.rboa.org.uk (Residential Boat Owners Association) or check out the association on Facebook. This is important reading before making any life-changing decisions.

BSS Certificates and pre-purchase surveys

A BSS certificate is not a boat survey. Please do not rely on a BSS certificate to support your boat purchase decision. Here's our explanation - BSS examinations: Framework & Limitations

As a potential boat purchaser, if you are told the boat has a current certificate, but no one knows where it is, before money changes hands ask the seller to obtain the BSS certification details (number and dates) from the registering navigation authority (e.g. Broads Authority, Canal & River Trust, Environment Agency, etc.). See below for copy certificate information.

Copies of Certificates: 

You must be the registered owners/keepers of the boat in question and there can be a fee payable. We will check personal details with the registering navigation authority.

Canal & River Trust customers can obtain BSS details from the Trust's online system

Examiners must still provide certification reports. Boat owners must be given either an electronic copy, or a paper copy or even both as agreed with  boat owner

If your examiner has not provided you with a report, please ask them for a copy.

Certificate details are not available on the BSS website for members of the public. Only navigation authority staff, BSS examiners and the BSS office staff have access to the information. Some navigation authorities are now providing an online information service for their registered boating customers including the Canal & River Trust (see above)