UK Offence Report

Penalties, etc.

regulation 10(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Reporting Requirements for Ships Carrying Dangerous or Polluting Goods) Regulations 1994

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 Any contravention of these Regulations shall be an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or on conviction on indictment by 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 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 10(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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Merchant Shipping (Reporting Requirements for Ships Carrying Dangerous or Polluting Goods) Regulations 1994, 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
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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 1994
In force from
11 January 1995
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 (Reporting of Pollution Incidents) Regulations 1987. The Regulations give effect to Protocol 1 to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973 (MARPOL) as amended by amendments adopted on 5th December 1985 by the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) at its 22nd Session. The Regulations also implement changes made by the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO to regulations 5 and 7 of Chapter VII of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention 1974 (SOLAS) which require the retention of dangerous goods manifests and stowage plans ashore and also the reporting of any incidents involving the loss overboard of packaged dangerous goods. They also re-enact similar provisions in MARPOL, Annex III, regulation 4 relating to marine pollutants, previously contained in the Merchant Shipping (Dangerous Goods and Marine Pollutants) Regulations 1990. The Regulations give effect to requirements in the IMDG Code for the shipper to provide prior notification before shipment of radioactive materials and for the master to report following an incident involving infectious substances. Copies of the IMDG Code and IMO Resolution A. 648 (16) are obtainable from the IMO 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR. Merchant Shipping Notices are obtainable from the Department of Transport, Marine Safety Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG and from any Marine Office of the Marine Safety Agency.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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 0.88.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens; the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.88 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