DE&S Commercial Diving Assurance Audit

Through the extant commercial diving assurance contract the Authority required a full End-to-End (E2E) review of their accountability, responsibility and engagement with commercial diving contracting. To facilitate this the project was divined into two specific tasks. The initial task was to review Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) processes and procedures when engaging with commercial diving, once all information had been gained the following task was to visit His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport to review the Naval Base processes and procedures for commercial diver engagement followed by an audit of the appointed commercial diving contractor.

On completion of the individual audits a collective audit report was submitted including a comprehensive corrective action plan which was to be used by the Authority in their internal assessment of commercial diving contracting.

Category: Diving Assurance Auditing & Compliance

Location: Bristol, HMNB Devonport, Plymouth United Kingdom

Date: March 2026

Project Overview

An initial Kick Off meeting was held with all stakeholders within DE&S and their supply chain at Abbey Wood, Bristol to review the extant processes and procedures within the Authority. A follow up meeting was held at Abbey Wood to further review internal supply chain documentation and discuss Defence Maritime Regulatory requirements. This was followed by the submission of a bespoke audit template produced by Dive Safe Services (DSS).

The project then moved to HMNB Devonport for a week’s intensive auditing of the commercial diving acquisition by Naval Command followed by a commercial diving audit of the appointed diving contractor Babcock Marine within the dockyard.

All the gathered evidence was compiled into a final report which covered the E2E process for engagement with commercial diving activities and gave the Authority a comprehensive corrective action plan supporting the findings.

Key Tasks

• Carry out a face-to-face meeting at Abbey Wood with all stakeholders;

• Produce a bespoke audit pro forma which includes following responsibility from setting the requirement that initiates diving activity through the contracting chain to the diving contractor and the management of risk through the organisations;

• Conduct part 1 of the audit with DES/SDA for the development of the requirement that instigates diving including COM/WTA engagement;

• Conduct part 2 of the audit within HMNB Devonport using the bespoke audit pro forma and the approved pro forma for auditing commercial diving contractors;

• Post-HMNB Devonport audit; compile a report identifying the findings from the audit and advising on corrective actions where the audit findings were not satisfactory.  Client base to provide feedback on report draft report, and these will be considered before final report is issued; and

• Provide advice on assurance framework compliance with legislation.