UK Offence Report

Offences by body corporate and partnerships

regulation 11(3) of The Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) (Employment of Young Persons) 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

3 Where an offence under any of these regulations committed by

a Scottish partnership is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of,

a partner, he as well as the partnership is guilty of an offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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 person 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 11(3)?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) (Employment of Young Persons) Regulations 1998.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
24 September 1998
In force from
30 October 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, which revoke the Merchant Shipping (Employment of Young Persons) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/972), give effect as respects shipping activities in the United Kingdom both to Council Directive 94/33/EC on the protection of young people at work (O.J. L216 20.8.94 p.12), and in part to The Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention 1976 (International Labour Organisation Convention 147) (Cmnd 7183). Young persons are defined as persons who are under 18 but over compulsory school leaving age (regulation 2(2)). The Regulations apply to all United Kingdom ships (regulation 3(1)), and ships which are not United Kingdom ships when in United Kingdom waters are subject to regulations covering inspection and detention (regulations 3(2) and 14–16). The Regulations do not apply if the Health and Safety (Young Persons) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/135) or the Health and Safety (Young Persons) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (S.R. 1997 No. 387) cover the matter (regulation 3(3)(a)), or if the work carried out is exceptional in various respects and equivalent compensatory rest time will be allowed in the next 3 weeks (regulation 3(3)(b)). An obligation is placed on the employer to comply with the requirements of the Regulations as well as on any person specifically named in the provision. There is facility to extend the employer’s duty to another person if the employer is not in control of the particular matter because he does not have responsibility for the operation of ship (regulation 4(1) and (2)). In addition to general duties required by the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/2962) the employer shall take appropriate measures to protect young persons at work (regulation 5(1)). This includes making an assessment of the risks to their health and safety in accordance with the provision of this regulation (regulation 5(2) and (5) and the Schedule). He shall inform young persons of identified risks and protective measures (regulation 5(3)), and shall ensure that they are not engaged in certain specified work (regulation 5(4)). Where the assessment shows the young person’s safety or health is at risk, or the young person will be regularly required to work at night, free health monitoring shall be provided (regulation 7). The employer shall provide the young person with specific minimum daily and weekly rest periods, and the Company (owner) is required to ensure that the employer meets that obligation (regulation 6). Except in specific circumstances no young person shall be employed on ship without an appropriate medical certificate (regulation 8). A record shall be kept of the young persons engaged as workers and providing a short summary of the provisions of these Regulations (regulation 9). Contravention of each separate duty provided for in these Regulations is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of £1000 (regulation 10). Provision is made for corporate and partnership offences (regulation 11) and the burden of showing that failure to comply with a duty in these Regulations was not reasonably practicable is on the defendant (regulation 12). Inspection and detention of United Kingdom and non-United Kingdom ships are separately provided for (regulations 13 and 14), and sections in the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 dealing with arbitration and compensation are applied (regulation 16). Various matters in the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) Regulations 1997 are amended including providing for partnership offences in Scotland (regulation 17). These regulations are made under powers contained in the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, except in respect of their application to Government ships (regulation 2(2)).

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 0.92.

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