The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency has published Guidance MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5: Code of safe working practices: 2026 edition, a notice dated 25 September 2026 that sets out the 2026 amendments to the Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers, known also as COSWP.
Guidance MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5 is presented by the Agency as the formal vehicle for the 2026 changes to the Code, and the document is identified on the government platform under that title and reference number, with the source entry bearing the date 2026-09-25.
The notice and its title
The published item carries the formal reference MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5 and the descriptive heading Guidance: MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5 code of safe working practices: 2026 edition; the wording used in that heading makes clear that the content concerns amendments made in 2026 to the Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers, which is referred to in the notice as the Code and also by the acronym COSWP.
The Agency’s entry states that the notice provides details of the 2026 amendments to the Code, and the descriptive information supplied with the publication repeats the connection between MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5 and the 2026 edition of COSWP, indicating the role of this particular guidance item in documenting those amendments.
The document’s dated publication
The published guidance is dated 25 September 2026 and is recorded on the UK government publications platform under the title and reference supplied, with the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency identified as the issuing body for the guidance item; the record links the Amendment 5 notice explicitly to the 2026 edition of the Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers.
Guidance MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5 is therefore the named notice through which the Agency has set out the 2026 amendments to COSWP, and the publication date given in the Agency’s record is 2026-09-25, a detail shown in the source entry accompanying the guidance on the government site.
This notice is the formal entry from the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency that carries the title Guidance: MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5 code of safe working practices: 2026 edition, and the summary supplied with the record states succinctly that the notice provides details of the 2026 amendments to the Code, also referred to as COSWP.
The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency is cited as the publisher of the guidance item, the reference given is MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5, and the document is presented as the 2026 edition for the Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers; the source information accompanying the publication records the date 25 September 2026 and identifies the notice by the exact heading supplied above.
Readers seeking the formal record will find the item listed on the UK government publications platform under the heading Guidance: MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5 code of safe working practices: 2026 edition and the record provides the brief summary noting that it contains details of the 2026 amendments to the Code, known also as COSWP.
In summary, the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency has published Guidance MIN 688 (M) Amendment 5, titled as the 2026 edition of the Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seafarers, and the Agency’s record of that publication is dated 25 September 2026 and describes the entry as setting out the 2026 amendments to the Code.