UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 5(2) of The Merchant Shipping (Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seamen) Regulations 1998

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 Any contravention of regulation 4(5) of these Regulations shall be an offence punishable on summary conviction by

a fine not exceeding level

1 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 person
Conduct
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (knowingly) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses knowingly; which element that governs was not determined; qualified by absence of consent (an element).

What would breach regulation 5(2)?

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 (Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seamen) 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£200
Standard scale
Level 1
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 (Code of Safe Working Practices) (Amendments and Revocation) Regulations 2015
Revoked on
20 October 2015
Made
27 July 1998
In force from
1 September 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, which revoke and replace The Merchant Shipping (Code of Safe Working Practices) Regulations 1980 (S.I. 1980/686), require the owner (or other person assuming responsibility for ownership) of each UK ship, other than fishing vessels or pleasure vessels, to carry on board and make available to workers “The Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seamen” (published in 1998 and obtainable from The Stationery Office) (“the Code”). The Regulations amend the thresholds for the carriage of specified numbers of copies of the Code, which has the effect of increasing by one the minimum number of copies to be carried on ships with between five and 15 workers, but decreasing the number of copies to be carried on ships with larger crews. The Regulations provide that– i ships on which five or less workers are employed shall carry at least one copy (regulation 4(1)); ii ships with more than five and less than 20 workers shall carry one copy which is in the custody of the master, one copy which is in the custody of the safety officer, one copy which is in the custody of the safety representative (where elected), and in addition one or more copies kept in a place accessible to other workers (regulation 4(2)); iii ships with more than 20 workers shall carry an adequate number for the workers employed as well as requiring one copy to be kept in the custody of the master, the chief officer, the chief engineer, the purser or catering officer, safety officer and any safety representative (regulation 4(3)). The Regulations allow that these minimum numbers may be reduced where no safety officer or safety representative is appointed or elected on board ship (regulation 4(4)). The Regulations prohibit removal of the Code from the ship without consent (regulation 4(5)). The Regulations make contravention of the requirement to carry copies of the Code an offence with a maximum penalty of £1000 (regulation 5(1)) and contravention of the prohibition on removal of a copy of the Code from the ship an offence with a maximum penalty of £200 (regulation 5(2)). The Code of Safe Working Practices for Merchant Seamen is obtainable from the Stationery Office Publications Centre, PO Box 276, London SW8 5DT (tel: 0171–873 9090).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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