UK Offence Report

The Merchant Shipping (Reporting Requirements for Ships Carrying Dangerous or Polluting Goods) Regulations 1995 (revoked)

UK Statutory Instrument 1995 No. 2498 — creates 5 criminal offences.

5offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
21 September 1995
In force from
31 October 1995
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries
Made under
European Communities Act 1972, Merchant Shipping Act 1979

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations implement (inter alia) Council Directive No. 93/75/EEC relating to vessels bound for or leaving community ports and carrying dangerous or polluting goods. They are intended to ensure that member States will have ready access to information about any dangerous or polluting goods aboard ships bound for or leaving their ports. Earlier and more limited EC requirements on reporting contained in the Merchant Shipping (Tankers) (EEC Requirements) Regulations 1981 as amended, are revoked. The Regulations also revoke and re-enact the Merchant Shipping (Reporting Requirements For Ships Carrying Dangerous or Polluting Goods) Regulations 1994, which implemented similar requirements in the Safety of Life at Sea Convention 1974 (SOLAS), as amended, and the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973 (MARPOL), as amended. They require the operator of a ship departing from a port to inform the competent authority of that port about the nature, quantity and location of any dangerous goods aboard, its destination and intended route (regulation 5). Ferries on short sea voyages of less than one hour are exempt from this requirement, provided that the operator of the ferry can supply this information to the competent authority immediately on request (regulation 5(3)). For a ship departing from a port outside the Community and bound for a Community port, this information is also required to be lodged with the competent authority of the member State of the first port of call within the Community (regulation 6). The Coastguard Agency of the Department of Transport, is designated as the competent authority for the United Kingdom (regulation 4). The Regulations also require masters to provide details of the ship, its equipment, crew and survey certificates to a pilot, or the competent authority on demand (regulation 12). If a ship finds itself in difficulty, or is involved in an incident which is likely to pose a threat to any member State’s coastline or related interests the master is immediately required to provide information about the cargo aboard to the competent authority of the State concerned (regulations 9 (1) (d), (3) and (4) and 10 and 11). These Regulations also implement the requirements in SOLAS and MARPOL to report the loss or likely loss of dangerous and polluting goods to the nearest coastal state wherever such incidents occur (regulations 9 (1) (a)-(c), (3) and (4) and 10 and 11). The Regulations permit the master to discharge this obligation by indicating which competent authority in the Community holds the information (regulation 9 (2)). A compliance cost assessment has been prepared and is available from the Marine Safety Agency, Department of Transport, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton S01 OZD. A copy has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. Copies of the IBC, IGC and IMDG Codes, and of MARPOL and SOLAS and amendments are obtainable from the International Maritime Organisation, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR. Merchant Shipping Notices are obtainable from the Marine Safety Agency Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG, and from any Marine Office of the Marine Safety Agency.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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