UK Offence Report

Training in emergency procedures

regulation 15(2) of The Merchant Shipping (Local Passenger Vessels)(Masters' Licences and Hours, Manning and Training) Regulations 1993

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 A person who contravenes

a requirement of paragraph (1) above shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

4 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 person 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 15(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes a requirement of paragraph (1) above.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Merchant Shipping (Local Passenger Vessels)(Masters' Licences and Hours, Manning and Training) Regulations 1993, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. 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
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
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 (Working Time: Inland Waterways) Regulations 2003
Revoked on
24 December 2003
Made
4 May 1993
In force from
1 June 1993
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 impose requirements in relation to local passenger vessels (that is, broadly, United Kingdom ships which carry more than 12 passengers, and operate in only Category A, B, C or D waters or, if at sea, not more than 3 miles from land). The requirements concern the licensing of masters of such vessels (Part II of the Regulations), the hours of work of such masters (Part III), and the manning of such vessels and the training of the crew in emergency procedures (Part IV). Part I of the Regulations consists of regulations 1 to 3, which make provision of a general nature. Part II (Masters' Licences), which also applies to certain passenger vessels registered elsewhere than in the United Kingdom, consists of regulations 4 to 9. Regulation 4 requires a master to be qualified by holding a certificate (referred to as a “licence”) granted by the Secretary of State. Regulation 5 provides for the method of applying for a licence, and for qualifying standards and conditions. It also requires the Secretary of State to issue a licence under Part II on application by the holder of a boatman’s licence issued by the Department of Transport under existing non-statutory arrangements. Regulation 6 provides for a licence to be of one of three grades, and for the imposing of restrictions as to areas of operation. Regulation 7 makes the validity of a licence subject to continuing compliance with the qualifying standards and conditions. Regulations 8 and 9 provide for administrative matters, and for the issue of copies of licences which have been lost. Part III (Masters' Hours) consists of regulations 10 to 13. Regulation 10 provides for the interpretation of Part III, and regulation 11 for the persons to whom Part III is to apply. Regulation 12 establishes a code of working hours. The working day is not to exceed 16 hours, and there must be at least 8 hours between one working day and the next. The time spent conning vessels is not to exceed 10 hours within any working day; and a master must not be on duty for more than 6 hours together (including any breaks of less than 30 minutes) without having a break of 30 minutes. Regulation 13 makes contravention of the code an offence. Part IV (Manning and Training) consists of regulations 14 to 16. Regulation 14 requires owners of vessels to notify the Secretary of State of the number of crew additional to the master needed for the geographical limits within which the vessel proposes to ply, and whether one such additional crew is to be licensed. The Secretary of State is empowered to approve the arrangements, and it is an offence for the vessel to go to sea without such an approval. Regulation 15 provides for the establishing of emergency procedures and for the master and crew to have received on-board training in such procedures and makes contravention of these requirements on offence on the part of the owner. Regulation 16 enables the vessel to be detained if there is a contravention of Part IV. Other relevant offences under the Merchant Shipping Act 1970 are— Offence Maximum fine a making a false statement to obtain a certificate or other document (section 43(5)): £5,000 on summary conviction; b ship going to sea or plying undermanned (sections 45 and 96(1)): £5,000 on summary conviction; no maximum on conviction on indictment. Under section 44 of that Act the Secretary of State is empowered to exempt vessels from the manning requirements. Merchant Shipping Notices are obtainable from the Marine Library, Department of Transport, Spring House, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO1 0ZD, or from any Department of Transport Marine Office.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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