UK Offence Report

The Secretary of State may make regulations for the prevention of oil pollution (hereinafter referred to as…

article 3(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Order 1983

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

1 The Secretary of State may make regulations for the prevention of oil pollution (hereinafter referred to as “the Regulations”) for the purpose of giving effect to the said Convention and Protocol and the Regulations may in particular include provisions— a with respect to the carrying out of surveys and inspections for that purpose, and for the issue, duration and recognition of certificates for that purpose and the payment in connection with such a survey, inspection or certificate of fees of amounts determined with the approval of the Treasury; b with respect to the application of the Regulations to the Crown and the extra-territorial operation of the Regulations; c for the extension of any provision of this Order or of the Regulations, with or without modification, to any of the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, any colony and any country or place outside Her Majesty's dominions in which Her Majesty has jurisdiction in right of the government of the United Kingdom; d that specified contraventions of the Regulations shall be offences punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum and on conviction on indictment by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years and a fine; e that any such contraventions shall be offences punishable only on summary conviction by a maximum fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or such less amount as is prescribed by the Regulations; f for detaining any ship in respect of which such a contravention is suspected to have occurred and, in relation to such a ship, for applying section 692 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (which relates to the detention of a ship) with such modifications, if any, as are prescribed by the Regulations; and the Regulations may— i make different provisions for different circumstances; ii provide for exemptions from any provisions of the Regulations; iii provide for the delegation of functions exercisable by virtue of the Regulations; and iv include such incidental, supplemental and transitional provisions as appear to the Secretary of State to be expedient for the purposes of the Regulations.

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
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
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 a person 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 article 3(1)?

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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Order 1983.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
27 July 1983
In force from
2 October 1983
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.

This Order enables effect to be given to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973 (Cmnd. 5748) and the Protocol of 1978 (Cmnd. 7347) relating to the Convention. The Order empowers the Secretary of State to make Regulations for the purpose of giving effect to the Convention and Protocol, and in particular with respect to the carrying out of surveys, the issue of certificates, the application of the Regulations to the Crown, the extension of the Order or Regulations to dependent territories, the imposition of penalties and the detention of ships for that purpose. Specified provisions of the Prevention of Oil Pollution Act 1971, and the Merchant Shipping Act 1974 together with the statutory instruments set out in Schedule 1, will no longer be required once those Regulations are in force and they are accordingly repealed or revoked. Sections 55 to 58 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1970 (investigations of casualties) are applied in relation to a discharge of oil or oily mixture from certain ships as they apply to damage caused by the ship. Any such discharge from a ship to which Regulations made under this Order apply and which is not prohibited thereby is authorised by this Order. By virtue of section 31(2)(b)(ii) of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 (c.40) any discharge so authorised does not constitute an offence under section 31(1) of that Act.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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 0.60.

Basis
the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.60 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