UK Offence Report

4 Any pilot who contravenes regulation 15(1) or any port authority which contravenes regulation 15(1) or…

regulation 18(4) of The Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Regulations 1995

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

4 Any pilot who contravenes regulation 15(1) or any port authority which contravenes regulation 15(1) or 15(3) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 pilot
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 pilot 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 18(4)?

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 pilot contravenes regulation 15(1) or any port authority which contravenes regulation 15(1) or 15(3).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Merchant Shipping (Port State Control) Regulations 1995, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
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 (Port State Control) Regulations 2011 (revoked)
Revoked on
24 November 2011
Made
5 December 1995
In force from
1 January 1996
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 implement the Council Directive 95/21/EC concerning the enforce ment, in respect of shipping using community ports and sailing in the waters under the jurisdiction of the member States, of international standards for ship safety, pollution prevention and shipboard living and working conditions (port State control). The Regulations also contain, in Parts II and III, related provisions, not in implementation of the Directive, giving rights of appeal and compensation in respect of detained ships, and allowing inspection of operational requirements. Part 1 applies to ships which are not British ships calling at, or anchored off, UK ports and offshore installations (regulation 3). It provides for the Marine Safety Agency to inspect at least 25% of such ships entering its ports in a year, to check the certificates required by a number of Conventions concerning ship safety and marine pollution (regulations 5 and 6.) Where there are clear grounds, by reason of non-compliance with the Conventions or the nature or type of ship, a more detailed inspection is to be carried out. In the case of passenger ships operating on a regular service to or from the United Kingdom, an expanded inspection is to be carried out annually by the Marine Safety Agency, subject to consultation with the Administration of other port states on the service (regulation 7.) Other specified types of ship are also subject to expanded inspections. Powers of inspection and detention in the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 and statutory instruments under it, can be used in the circumstances required by the Directive (regulations 3(5) and (6) and 9.) Rights of appeal and compensation in connection with such detentions are provided (regulation 10 to 12.) There are provisions for follow up to inspections and detentions, qualifications of inspectors, duties of pilots and port authorities to make reports, publication of the detention information, fees and offences (regulations 13—18.) In Part II, rights of appeal and compensation in respect of detained ships in Part I are applied in respect of detention of any ship (including a British ship) which is detained by virtue of powers in Merchant Shipping legislation. This, for ships to which the Safety of Life at Sea Convention 1974 (SOLAS) applies, implements regulation 19(f) of Chapter I of the Annex to the Convention. Part III implements the new Chapter XI of SOLAS adopted by the Conference of Contracting Governments to SOLAS 74 by Resolution 1 on 24 May 1994. This allows inspection of the familiarity of the crew with essential procedures and operations relating to the safety of the ship (as an addition to existing powers to inspect ships, their equipment and documents.) Merchant Shipping Notices referred to in the Regulations may be obtained from the Marine Safety Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1EG. The Safety of Life at Sea Convention 1974, and amendments, and other Conventions referred to in regulation 2(1) can be obtained from the International Maritime Organization, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1, except the Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention (ILO No. 147) (Cmnd. 7163).

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