UK Offence Report

Offences under Part II

regulation 22(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Crew Agreements, Lists of Crew and Discharge of Seamen) Regulations 1991

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 A master who fails to comply with an obligation imposed on him by or under regulation 15(2), 20(1) or

21 shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 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 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 22(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. On these words an offence is committed where a master fails to comply with an obligation imposed on him by or under regulation 15(2), 20(1) or 21.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Merchant Shipping (Crew Agreements, Lists of Crew and Discharge of Seamen) Regulations 1991, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£50
Standard scale
Level 1
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 1 value when the instrument came into force (1991-10-22); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £200.

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
23 September 1991
In force from
22 October 1991
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, and re-enact with amendments, the Merchant Shipping (Crew Agreements, Lists of Crew and Discharge of Seamen) Regulations 1972 as amended. The amendments principally end certain requirements under the 1972 Regulations:— a the requirement to notify superintendents of the intention to open a crew agreement; b the requirement to deliver a copy of the crew agreement to a superintendent or proper officer; c the requirement to notify superintendents and proper officers of crew changes; d the requirement to notify superintendents and consuls of the intention to discharge seafarers unless a wage dispute is pending. In addition to fixed term crew agreements, Regulations 6 and 20 also now provide for indefinite crew agreements. A new regulation (regulation 18) will give the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen the right to demand from the owner the list of crew on board the vessel on a given date.

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