UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Merchant Shipping (Passenger Ship Construction: Ships of Classes I, II and II(A))…

regulation 2(b) of The Merchant Shipping (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002

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

b in regulation 91—

i for paragraph (5) there shall be substituted—

5 If any officer appointed in accordance with regulation 30(1) reports to the master or other officer in charge of the bridge

a door to be closed and locked when it is not in fact closed and locked he shall be guilty of an offence, punishable on summary conviction by

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or, on conviction on indictment, by imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years and

a fine. , and

ii in paragraph (6), for “level

3 on the standard scale” there shall be substituted “the statutory maximum”.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 officer
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 an officer 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 2(b)?

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 (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
25 June 2002
In force from
1 August 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 amend two earlier instruments to correct defects, and are being issued free of charge to all known recipients of those instruments. Regulation 2 amends the Merchant Shipping (Passenger Ship Construction: Ships of Classes I, II and II(A)) Regulations 1998 to correct a reference to a published code of practice, clarify the offence in regulation 91(5) and alter the penalty for contravention of regulation 42(1). Regulation 3 amends the Merchant Shipping (Passenger Ship Construction: Ships of Classes III to VI(A)) Regulations 1998 to alter a manoeuvring requirement, clarify a reference to a Merchant Shipping Notice, correct a reference to a published code of practice, create an offence where a door is reported closed and locked but is not closed and locked, and alter the penalty for contravention of regulation 34(4)(a) of those Regulations.

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”; the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
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