UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 10(1)(a) of The Merchant Shipping (IBC Code) Regulations 1987

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

a If there is a breach of regulation 3,5(5), 6 or 9 then the owner and master of the ship shall each be guilty of an offence punishable on Summary conviction by a fine not exceeding £1,000, or, on indictment, by a fine;

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 master
Conduct
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 master 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

fine not exceeding £1,000, or, on indictment, by a fine. 2 It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under these Regulations to prove that he took all reasonable steps to ensure that the regulations in question were complied with.

What would breach regulation 10(1)(a)?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Merchant Shipping (IBC Code) Regulations 1987, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Merchant Shipping (Dangerous or Noxious Liquid Substances in Bulk) Regulations 1996
Revoked on
1 January 1997
Made
26 March 1987
In force from
6 April 1987
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

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

These Regulations require chemical tankers built on or after 1st July 1986 and carrying polluting or dangerous liquid substances in bulk, and ships undergoing major conversion on or after that date to being chemical tankers carrying such substances, to comply with the International Code for the Construction and Equipment of Ships Carrying Dangerous Chemicals in Bulk which was adopted by the Marine Environment Protection Committee (“the MEPC”) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on 5th December 1985. The Code so adopted is an amended version of the Code of that name adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee of IMO on 17th June 1983 (the MSC version). The MSC version covered dangerous substances only. The amended version extends the Code to cover carriage of pollution hazard substances of Categories A, B and C as defined in the Code, and makes minor changes to the construction requirements of the Code. The Regulations give effect to regulation 13(2) of Annex II to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as set out in the amendments thereto adopted by the MEPC on 5th December 1985. Annex II comes into force internationally on 6th April 1987. They also replace the Merchant Shipping (Chemical Tankers) Regulations 1986 which made the MSC version of the Code compulsorily applicable under United Kingdom law, thus giving effect to Part B of Chapter VII of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, as amended in 1981 and 1983. To that extent these Regulations are consolidating regulations. Copies of the Code and of Annex II as adopted by the MEPC are obtainable from the International Maritime Organization, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR.

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