UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 8(2) of The Fishing Vessels (Life-Saving Appliances) Regulations 1988

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

2 If a vessel to which these Regulations apply proceeds to sea without complying with the requirements of regulation 4, the owner and skipper of the vessel shall each be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £500.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 skipper
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 skipper 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 8(2)?

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 Fishing Vessels (Life-Saving Appliances) Regulations 1988.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£500
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
18 January 1988
In force from
Not determined
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 make requirements for life-saving appliances additional to those contained in Part IIIA of the Fishing Vessels (Safety Provisions) Rules 1975 and provide for— a the carriage of emergency position-indicating radio beacons by fishing vessels of 12 metres and over in length (reg. 3); b the carriage of lifejackets with lifejacket lights by fishing vessels of less than 12 metres in length for each person carried and at least one extra lifejacket (reg. 4 and Schedules 1 and 2); c float free arrangements for liferafts carried by fishing vessels of 12 metres and over in length (reg. 5 and Schedule 3). Differing dates of entry into force of these requirements are given in the Regulations. The requirements of the Regulations (which are made under sections 21 and 22 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1979) originated with sections 1 to 6 of the Safety at Sea Act 1986 (c. 23).

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”
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