5 Any person contravening regulation 4 shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a…

regulation 5(5) of The Merchant Shipping (Passenger Counting and Recording Systems) Regulations 1990

Status not determined
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Either way
Transport: maritime, aviation, rail and harbours

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

5 Any person contravening regulation
4 shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to
a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for
a term not exceeding two years or
a fine or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof: No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (knowingly, recklessly) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses knowingly, recklessly; which element that governs was not determined.

What would breach regulation 5(5)?

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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Merchant Shipping (Passenger Counting and Recording Systems) Regulations 1990.

Penalty

Mode of trial: Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine: £1,000
Standard scale: Level 4
Maximum prison (summary): Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment): 2 years

this is the level 4 value when the instrument came into force (1990-04-12); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £2500.

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.

Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales
How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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: 15 March 1990
In force from: 12 April 1990
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

These Regulations apply to United Kingdom passenger ships operating as passenger ships of Classes III, IV, V, VI, and VI(A), and require the operation of passenger counting and recording systems for all voyages on which passengers are carried. They require documentation to be retained for future inspection by persons duly authorised by the Secretary of State. It is to be an offence under the Regulations for a ship to put out before the total number of passengers on board has been determined by means of a passenger counting system and the master informed and a record of the number of passengers and the number of crew on board on a particular voyage placed or communicated ashore before departure. It is also to be an offence for any person to make a false statement in connection with the passenger counting system, or to falsify the documentation.

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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Merchant Shipping (Passenger Counting and Recording Systems) Regulations 1990 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Transport: maritime, aviation, rail and harboursOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1990