UK commercial diving contractors need a defensible plant register, current certification, scheduled periodic testing, and a modifications log that flags affected equipment for re-certification. PICMS Diving Professional workflows are aligned with the IMCA D018 reference areas, the Diving at Work Regulations 1997, and the HSE Approved Codes of Practice L103 (offshore) and L104 (inshore) — without reproducing IMCA controlled content.
PICMS is an independent compliance management platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, certified by, or approved by IMCA. References to IMCA publications (D011, D018, D023, D040) are for identification and alignment purposes only. IMCA documents remain the property of IMCA and users should obtain and use official IMCA publications in accordance with IMCA's applicable terms. PICMS does not reproduce, distribute, or replace IMCA-controlled documents.
References to HSE Approved Codes of Practice (L103, L104) and other HSE publications are factual identification only, made available to UK operators under the Open Government Licence v3.0. PICMS is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the Health and Safety Executive. Operators must consult the controlled HSE text directly for binding requirements.
IMCA D018 is a code of practice covering the initial and periodic examination, testing and certification of plant and equipment used in diving operations. The contractor's evidence trail needs to demonstrate: every item identified, certificate dates current, periodic tests on schedule, defects and modifications managed without an unsupervised return-to-service. PICMS structures the workflow around these reference areas.
The audit failure pattern PICMS most often sees on diving plant: equipment exists on multiple spreadsheets that don't reconcile; certs are scanned PDFs in a Dropbox folder with no expiry tracking; periodic-test cadence drifted during quiet quarters and nobody noticed; a modification was made on site and the equipment went back into service before re-certification. Any of these is grounds for an auditor finding (working to IMCA D011-aligned audit reference areas), and any of these can sink a tender on the technical pass.
What an aligned-to-D018 workflow looks like, in practical terms: every item of plant has a unique ID, a certificate file attached, an expiry date the system warns on, a periodic-test cadence the system schedules, and any modification flags the equipment for re-certification with a hold that prevents return-to-service until signed off.
Plant Register with unique IDs per item, category (compressors, panels, hot-water units, breathing-gas containers, life-support, surface-supplied diving systems). Linked to vessel / project / location. Photos attached for visual ID.
37 inspection types covering the reference areas in IMCA D018. Standard cadence options (6m / 12m / 15m / 2y / 2.5y / 4y / 5y / 10y) plus configurable grace periods. Certificate PDFs attached with version control.
PMS (Planned Maintenance System) module schedules periodic tests against the cadence assigned at item-registration time. Threshold-driven expiry events feed the weekly digest so nothing drifts past expiry unnoticed.
The modification-management reference area in IMCA D018 expects modifications to flag the affected equipment for re-certification. PICMS Modifications module supersedes the old cert AND auto-creates a renewal task. A platform that doesn't do both allows equipment to slip back into service un-reverified.
Defect register with severity rating, root-cause investigation, corrective action linkage. Items can be flagged unavailable for use pending repair + re-certification.
The Diving at Work Regulations 1997 (DWR 1997) are the UK statutory baseline for every commercial diving operation. PICMS pre-loads the regulatory references and bridges new HSE updates into the live legal register.
L103 (Commercial diving projects offshore) and L104 (Commercial diving projects inshore) are the HSE ACoPs paired with DWR 1997. PICMS references them by identifier and links to the free HSE downloads; operators must consult the controlled text directly.
Unique-ID register of every item of diving plant. Category, manufacturer, serial number, photo, vessel/project assignment. CSV import for migrating off spreadsheets.
Certificate PDFs attached per item. Expiry alerts at 90/60/30/14/0 days. Bulk renewal workflow for batch-tested equipment. Cert version history.
Cadence-driven task scheduling: 6m / 12m / 15m / 2y / 2.5y / 4y / 5y / 10y options matching standard periodic-test intervals. Weekly digest of upcoming + overdue tasks.
Every plant modification recorded with descriptions, dates, competent-person sign-off. Automatic re-certification flag on the affected items — hold preventing return-to-service until signed.
Per-item defect log. Severity rating, root-cause investigation, corrective action with effectiveness check. Items flagged unavailable until repair + re-cert complete.
Project closeout pack pulling plant register snapshot, certificate evidence, periodic-test history, modifications log, defect status. Aligned with the IMCA D040 audit reference areas.
DWR 1997, HSWA 1974, MHSWR 1999, COSHH 2002, plus the diving-specific HSE ACoPs (L103, L104). Auto-bridges new HSE updates into the live register.
One-page readiness score: plant compliance %, cert compliance %, PMS on-time %, modifications backlog. Defensible when an auditor working to IMCA D011 reference areas arrives.
Auditor-credible vendors don't pretend software replaces competent persons. PICMS does not:
What PICMS does is structure the plant + certification + PMS + modifications + defect evidence around the IMCA D018 reference areas, so an auditor (working to IMCA D011-aligned audit reference areas) finds a current, defensible, version-controlled trail rather than a folder of scanned PDFs and an Excel that nobody trusts.
14 days free, full feature access, no credit card surprise. Diving Pack workflows aligned with IMCA D018 reference areas, built by an IRCA® Registered Principal Auditor.