UK Offence Report

1 Any harbour authority or any operator of an offshore installation or of an oil handling facility who…

regulation 7(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation Convention) Regulations 1998

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 harbour authority or any operator of an offshore installation or of an oil handling facility who without reasonable cause: a fails to submit or re-submit an oil pollution emergency plan in accordance with regulation 4(3), (4) or (5); b does not maintain an oil pollution emergency plan, as approved (with alterations directed by the MCA or the Secretary of State, as the case may be, if so directed) under regulation 4(5) to (7); or c fails to implement its oil pollution emergency plan in contravention of regulation 4(8), shall be guilty of 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an harbour authority
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 harbour authority 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 7(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 (Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation Convention) Regulations 1998, 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
16 April 1998
In force from
15 May 1998
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, in part, the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation, 1990. They require harbour authorities and operators of oil handling facilities and of offshore installations, where there is present a risk of an oil pollution incident, to have oil pollution emergency plans, which have to be approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (“MCA”) of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions as conforming to the National Contingency Plan (regulation 4(1) and (6)). The MCA may after consulting harbour authorities or operators of oil facilities direct that a plan be altered (regulation 4(6)). It is the duty of harbour authorities and such operators to implement the approved plan in the event of an oil pollution incident (regulation 4(8)). The Secretary of State (for Trade and Industry) has equivalent powers in relation to offshore installations and pipelines (regulation 4(7)). The Regulations also contain provisions requiring masters of United Kingdom ships, and individuals having charge of harbours, oil handling facilities and offshore installations to report certain events involving the discharge of oil (regulations 5 and (6)). There are powers of inspection for the Secretary of State in relation to offshore installations and pipelines (regulation 8). A cost compliance assessment has been prepared, and may be obtained from the Marine Pollution Control Unit of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG. A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies of the Convention and Assembly Resolutions can be obtained from the International Maritime Organisation, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR. Copies of the National Contingency Plan can be obtained from the Marine Pollution Control Unit of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG.

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”; the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
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