UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 48(2) of The Merchant Shipping (Radio Installations) Regulations 1992

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 If these Regulations are contravened in any other respect in relation to any ship, the owner and Master of the ship shall each 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 2 years and 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 48(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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Merchant Shipping (Radio Installations) Regulations 1992, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£100
Standard scale
Level 2
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

this is the level 2 value when the instrument came into force (1992-02-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £500.

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 (Radio Installations) Regulations 1998
Revoked on
28 September 1998
Made
6 January 1992
In force from
1 February 1992
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 give effect to amendments to Chapter IV of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea 1974 which were adopted by states party to that Convention at a Conference on the Global Maritime Distress and Safety Systems (GMDSS) on 11th November 1988.GMDSS is the International Maritime Organisation’s worldwide network of automated emergency communications for vessels at sea. The amendments come into force internationally on 1st February 1992. They apply to all ships constructed after 1st February 1995 (new ships) and from 1st February 1999 to ships constructed before 1st February 1995, with some phasing in (see paragraph 5 below) during the interim period. Part I of these Regulations contains definitions, application provisions, and provisions for exemptions, equivalents and performance standards. Part II contains the GMDSS provisions. It requires new ships to carry new types of radio equipment including equipment for satellite communication, emergency radio beacons (EPIRBs) and other items. The carriage requirements depend on the ship’s area of operations. For this purpose the world is divided up under the GMDSS into four sea areas: area A1 which is within range of VHF coastal radio; area A2 which is within range of MF coastal radio; area A3 which is within coverage of geostationary satellites; and area A4 which covers the remainder of the world. The requirements for maintenance of the equipment carried permit some flexibility: maintenance may be achieved by duplication of equipment, by shore-based maintenance or by an at-sea maintenance capability. Part III of the Regulations applies to existing ships and re-enacts the provisions of the Merchant Shipping (Radio Installations) Regulations 1980 as amended. Those re-enacted provisions will continue to apply to existing ships (ie those that were operating under the 1980 regulations) until 31st January 1999, after which date all ships will be required to comply fully with Part II. However, existing ships may at any time before that date, if their owners so choose, comply with Part II instead of Part III. Those that continue to comply with Part III are required, as part of the phasing in process referred to above, to fit certain items of equipment required under Part II, namely from 1st August 1993 with NAVTEX and satellite EPIRBs. The 1980 regulations are revoked by these Regulations.

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