UK Offence Report

An employer who fails to comply with an obligation imposed on him by or under paragraph (1) of this…

regulation 3(7) of The Merchant Shipping (Repatriation) Regulations 1979

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

7 An employer who fails to comply with an obligation imposed on him by or under paragraph (1) of this regulation shall be guilty of an offence and shall be punishable on summary conviction with

a fine not exceeding £100.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
an employer
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that an employer meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 3(7)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where an employer fails to comply with an obligation imposed on him by or under paragraph (1) of this regulation.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Merchant Shipping (Repatriation) Regulations 1979, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£100
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
2 February 1979
In force from
1 March 1979
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations revoke the Merchant Shipping (Repatriation) Regulations 1972. Those 1972 Regulations are re-enacted, with minor drafting amendments, except in two respects:— provisions relating to the return and relief of seamen left behind or shipwrecked; and provisions relating to wages and accounts of such seamen. The Regulations require the employer to return a seaman (if he has not been absent without cause for more than three months) who is unable to inform his employer of his desire to return, as soon as the employer, the employer's agent, a superintendent or a proper officer obtains the seaman's confirmation that he wishes to be returned by his employer (regulation 3(2)(c)); the employer's obligation will cease (additionally) when he is informed in writing by the seaman that he does not wish to be returned by him (regulation 3(3)(c)). The employer is obliged to make provision for the seaman's relief and maintenance (except in the case of a seaman absent without cause for more than three months). Relief and maintenance now includes reasonable legal costs for the defence of the seaman in certain criminal proceedings (regulation 3(5)(d)). In regulation 10 the conveyance rate is increased to £2 per day. The requirements relating to the payment of wages and accounts of seamen left behind or shipwrecked have been simplified. Regulation 11 now deals with these matters in respect of seamen who had been employed in a ship and regulation 12 in respect of seamen who had been employed in a fishing vessel. Under regulations 11 and 12, in general, the wages have to be paid in full at the time when a seaman is discharged from his ship or fishing vessel and, when he is not so discharged, within 28 days. It is now prescribed in regulation 2 (formerly in regulations 14(1)(b) and 15(1)(b)) that regulations 11 to 14 apply also to seamen who leave their ship in the United Kingdom, otherwise than on being discharged therefrom. The offences remain unchanged, but have been inserted at the end of each regulation to which they relate.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”; the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source