UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 4(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Mandatory Ships’ Routeing) Regulations 1997

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 regulation

3 shall be an offence by the owner, the master and any other person for the time being responsible for the conduct of the ship, punishable on summary conviction by

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or on indictment by imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years, or

a fine or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an owner
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 an owner 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 4(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 (Mandatory Ships’ Routeing) Regulations 1997, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
2 years

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
21 May 1997
In force from
24 June 1997
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 implement Regulation 8 of Chapter V of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention 1974, which was substituted by the Maritime Safety Committee Resolution MSC 46(65) adopted on 16th May 1995. The Regulations require United Kingdom ships and non-United Kingdom ships while in United Kingdom waters to comply with mandatory ships’ routeing systems adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) pursuant to Regulation 8 of Chapter V of SOLAS which are specified in Admiralty Charts, and Sailing Directions and annotated as “Mandatory Ships’ Routeing System under SOLAS Regulation V/8”. Admiralty Charts and Sailing Directions are obtainable from branded Admiralty distributors as listed in the Catalogue of Admiralty Charts and Other Hydrographic Publications (available from the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty Way, Taunton, Somerset TA1 2DN). Regulation 8 of Chapter V of SOLAS is obtainable from the International Maritime Organisation, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR. A compliance cost assessment has been prepared and copies can be obtained from the Marine Information Centre of the Marine Safety Agency, Department of Transport, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG. A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.

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