UK Offence Report

1 Any offence under these Regulations shall be punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding…

regulation 30(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Seamen’s Documents) Regulations 1987

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 Any offence under these Regulations shall be punishable on summary conviction with

a fine not exceeding level

1 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

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

The defence, as drafted

with a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale. 2 It shall be a defence for a person charged under these Regulations to show he took all reasonable precautions to avoid the commission of the offence.

What would breach regulation 30(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 (Seamen’s Documents) Regulations 1987.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 1
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
12 March 1987
In force from
8 April 1987
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 (Seamen’s Documents) Regulations 1972, as amended, and re-enact them with further amendments. The major changes are:— a British Seamen’s Cards no longer require endorsement after 5 years; they are issued valid for ten years; b British Seamen’s Cards are no longer obligatory for British seafarers; c the precise form of such a Card is not included in the Regulations; instead the Regulations specify the particulars to be included in a Card; d application for seamen’s documents can now be made not only to a superintendent but also to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen; e the removal of the requirement to list periods of work or standing by, of paid and unpaid leave and of sickness and study leave in discharge books; f the addition of a requirement to include a record of certificates issued under the Merchant Shipping (Medical Examination) Regulations 1983 in discharge books; g the extension of powers to make certain entries in discharge books to include Principals, or approved deputies, of training establishments approved by the Department of Transport, and the holders themselves; h the inclusion of a requirement to make persons to whom a discharge book is produced return it to the holder as soon as practical; i increase of one in the number of photographs to be submitted if application is made for both a British Seaman’s Card and a discharge book; j masters of non-UK registered vessels may make voyage entries relating to service in those vessels.

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 0.60.

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