UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 7(2) of The Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 2001

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

2 Any contravention of regulation

6 shall be an offence punishable on summary conviction by

a fine not exceeding level

4 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 7(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 and Fishing Vessels (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 2001, 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
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
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
Status not determined
Made
20 October 2001
In force from
15 February 2002
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 Council Directive 92/58/EEC (O.J. No. L245, 26.8.1992, p. 23) on the minimum requirements for the provision of safety and/or health signs at work (“the Directive”) (ninth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC). The terms used in the Regulations are defined in regulation 2 and the circumstances in which the Regulations apply are set out in regulation 3. The exclusions include signs used in relation to the supply of dangerous substances or equipment, for the transport of dangerous goods and for the regulation of transport. Regulation 4 specifies the persons on whom duties are imposed and regulation 5 requires safety signs to comply with the descriptions in the Annexes to the Directive. Safety signs must be provided where the risk assessment made under regulation 7 of the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/2962) indicates that the risks cannot be avoided or adequately controlled in other ways. The regulation also requires that safety signs are maintained. With certain exceptions (set out in the Schedule), the hand signals to be used are described in Annex IX to the Directive. Regulation 6 requires that workers receive adequate instruction and training in the meaning of safety signs and the measures to be taken in connection with safety signs. Regulations 7 to 13 concern enforcement. By regulation 7 contravention of each separate duty in regulations 5 and 6 is a criminal offence. Provision is made for corporate offences (regulation 8) and the burden of showing that compliance with a duty in these Regulations was not reasonably practicable is on the defendant (regulation 9). Inspection and detention of United Kingdom and non-United Kingdom ships are separately provided for (regulations 10 and 11), and sections in the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 dealing with enforcement of detention and with arbitration and compensation are applied (regulations 12 and 13). These Regulations are made under the powers contained in the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 except in respect of their application to Government ships (regulation 2(1)) where the power is provided by section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972. A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been produced and a copy placed in the Library of both Houses of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Maritime Information Centre, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG (telephone number 023 8032 9297). Copies of the relevant international Codes can be obtained from the International Maritime Organization, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR (telephone number 020 7735 7611). Merchant Shipping Notices can be obtained from iForce, Imber Court Business Park, Orchard Lane, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 0BZ (telephone number 020 8957 5028; fax number 020 8957 5012). Copies of the document referred to at paragraph 1 of the Schedule can be obtained from BSI Standards, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL.

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