UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Merchant Shipping (Additional Safety Measures for Bulk Carriers) Regulations 1999

the instrument as a whole of The Merchant Shipping (Additional Safety Measures for Bulk Carriers) Regulations 1999 (revoked)

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section 85(5)-(7) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 (Additional Safety Measures for Bulk Carriers) Regulations 1999.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 85(5)-(7) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
4 June 1999
In force from
1 July 1999
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 SOLAS Chapter XII “Additional Safety Measures for Bulk Carriers”, adopted by the International Maritime Organization at the 1997 SOLAS Conference in November 1997. The Regulations lay down certain minimum standards for the longitudinal strength, buoyancy, stability, damage survivability, strength of double bottoms and transverse bulkheads, loading and survey of certain types of bulk carriers. The Regulations apply in addition to the relevant provisions of the Merchant Shipping (Cargo Ship Construction) Regulations 1997 (S.I. No. 1509 amended by S.I. 1999/643), and the Merchant Shipping (Carriage of Cargoes) Regulations 1999. The technical standards for bulk carriers constructed before 1st July 1999 are laid down in a number of IMO Resolutions referred to in the Regulations, while those for new bulk carriers are described in certain Unified Requirements of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), as specified in IMO Recommendation on “Compliance with SOLAS Regulation XII/5” (referred to in regulation 7). A cost compliance assessment has been prepared and copies can be obtained from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton, Hants, SO15 5EG. A copy has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. IMO Resolutions, Codes and Guidelines are available from the International Maritime Organization, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR. IACS Unified Requirements are available from IACS Permanent Secretariat, 5 Old Queen Street, London, S 1H 9JA. Merchant Shipping Notices are obtainable from EROS Marketing Support Services, Delta House, Imber Court Business Park, Orchard Lane, East Molesey, Surrey T 0BN (Tel. 0181 957 502).

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 0.61.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.61 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