UK Offence Report

5 Any person who in connection with the registration of a ship knowingly or recklessly furnishes information…

regulation 114(5) of The Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Regulations 1993

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 who in connection with the registration of

a ship knowingly or recklessly furnishes information which is false in

a material particular 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 person
Conduct
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (knowingly, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly).

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

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly.

What would breach regulation 114(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.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a person in connection with the registration of a ship knowingly or recklessly furnishes information which is false in a material particular.
  2. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Regulations 1993.
  3. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  4. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1994-03-21); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
14 December 1993
In force from
21 March 1994
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.

The Regulations provide for the registration of merchant ships, fishing vessels and small ships in accordance with the Merchant Shipping (Registration, etc.) Act 1993. The Regulations determine who are qualified to register such ships in the United Kingdom (and thus meet the United Kingdom’s EC obligations under the two cases R v. Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame (Case C.221/89) and Commission v. United Kingdom (Case c.246/89)).They also provide for the necessary British connection in certain cases where the owner is not resident in the United Kingdom. The Regulations provide for methods of application and renewal for registration, and for registration of transfers and mortgages.They lay down requirements as to naming, measurement and marking.They provide for refusal or termination of registration in certain cases; and for provisional registration. The Regulations also provide for the registration in a separate part of the register of ships bareboat chartered-in to persons qualified to own British ships, in accordance with section 7 of the Act of 1993. There are transitional provisions providing for the continued validity of existing certificates for up to five years. A compliance cost assessment has been prepared and copies can be obtained from the Department of Transport, Room P2/075, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 3EB.A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.

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