UK Offence Report

Engine power of fishing vessels registered on Part II or Part IV of the Register

regulation 29A(3) of The Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships, and Tonnage) (Amendment) Regulations 1999

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 Any owner who contravenes paragraph (2) shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 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 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 29A(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. On these words an offence is committed where an owner contravenes paragraph (2).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships, and Tonnage) (Amendment) Regulations 1999, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
30 November 1999
In force from
10 January 2000
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.

(This note does not form part of the Regulations) These Regulations further amend the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Regulations 1993 (“the 1993 Regulations”). Their primary purpose is to require that the engine power recorded for fishing vessels is the maximum continuous engine power, or that power as permanently de-rated, as required by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2930/86 of 22nd September 1986 (defining characteristics for fishing vessels) and Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 1381/87 of 20th May 1987 (establishing detailed rules concerning the marking and documentation of fishing vessels). The Regulations also make minor and drafting amendments to the 1993 Regulations. The Regulations also further amend the Merchant Shipping (Tonnage) Regulations 1997 and the Merchant Shipping (Fishing Vessels—Tonnage) Regulations 1988, to ensure that the term “fixed permanent structure” includes all structures which are fixed in place during the normal operation of the ship. (The term is used in the definition of “length overall”, and applied both for the purposes of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2930/86 and for the measurement of tonnage otherwise than under that Council Regulation.) A regulatory impact assessment has been prepared and a copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton, Hampshire SO15 5EG (telephone number 01703 329 100).

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 0.92.

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