UK Offence Report

1 Any breach of the requirements of these Regulations (other than of the requirements of regulations 4, 5, 6…

regulation 14(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage) Regulations 1998

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 Any breach of the requirements of these Regulations (other than of the requirements of regulations 4, 5, 6 or 7)— a in respect of a ship, shall be an offence on the part of the owner, manager, demise charterer and master of the ship; and b in respect of an installation, shall be an offence on the part of the owner and installation manager, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 owner
Conduct
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

1 In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove— a that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to ensure that the Regulations were complied with; b that the disposal was necessary for the purpose of securing the safety of the ship or installation or those on board, or of saving life a

What would breach regulation 14(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 (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage) 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Sewage and Garbage from Ships) Regulations 2008
Revoked on
1 February 2009
Made
1 June 1998
In force from
1 July 1998
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 consolidate, with amendments, the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage) Regulations 1988 and the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage) (Amendment) Regulations 1993. The Regulations implement annex V to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 (MARPOL) as amended. In addition to minor and drafting amendments, the following are the principal changes of substance: a ships to which the Regulations apply are subject to inspection while in United Kingdom ports (regulation 12); b in respect of certain vessels and platforms, placards are to be displayed informing the persons on board of the requirements of the Regulations and garbage management plans and record books are to be carried. Garbage record books are to be subject to inspection and inspectors may take copies of any entry in such a book (regulations 11 and 13); c Section 131(3), as modified by the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage) Order 1988 (as amended by S.I. 1997/2569 and S.I. 1998/254), sections 143(6), 144 and 146 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, as modified by these Regulations, are applied to an offence of contravening regulations 4 to 7 (regulations 14(2), 15(1) and (2), 17(3)); and d extensions of jurisdiction permitted by the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) (Cmnd 8941). In particular, discharges by ships other than United Kingdom ships into the United Kingdom’s controlled waters beyond the territorial sea and, subject to certain restrictions on institution of proceedings contained in regulation 18, elsewhere, are prohibited. Where proceedings for such a discharge are instituted they may be suspended if the flag State institutes proceedings (regulation 19). The Regulations also prohibit disposal of garbage from fixed or floating installations in the United Kingdom’s controlled waters (regulation 7). A compliance cost assessment has been prepared and copies may be obtained from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Zone 2/30 Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG (telephone: 01703 329191). A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Merchant Shipping Notices are obtainable from Eros Marketing Support Services, Unit B, Imber Court Trading Estate, Orchard Lane, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 0BN. Copies of the MARPOL Convention and UNCLOS may be obtained from the International Maritime Organisation at 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 75R.

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 0.88.

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