UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 17(3) of The Merchant Shipping (Medical Examination) Regulations 2002 (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

3 If a seafarer fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement made under regulation 9(2) he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of an amount not exceeding level 2 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

3 If a seafarer fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement made under regulation 9(2) he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of an amount not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 17(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 (Medical Examination) Regulations 2002.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
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
4 August 2002
In force from
1 September 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 revoke and substantially re-enact the Merchant Shipping (Medical Examination) Regulations 1983, as amended. These Regulations remove the previous restriction on application based on tonnage and apply to sea-going ships, irrespective of tonnage. The Regulations also make new provision in relation to the period of validity of medical fitness certificates and in relation to seafarers on watchkeeping duties. The Regulations give effect in part to Convention 147 of the International Labour Organization entitled the Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention 1976 (ratified by the United Kingdom on 28th November 1980), as supplemented by Protocol 147 to that Convention (ratified by the United Kingdom on 29th June 2001). Convention 147 requires provisions to be made substantially equivalent to those of (amongst other Conventions) Convention 73 entitled the Medical Examinations (Seafarers) Convention 1946 which is in force but has not been ratified by the United Kingdom. The Regulations also give effect to Clause 13 of the Agreement on the organisation of working time of seafarers concluded by the European Community Shipowners' Association and the Federation of Transport Workers' Unions in the European Union which is annexed to Council Directive 1999/63/EC. The Regulations: apply to sea-going United Kingdom ships other than fishing vessels, pleasure vessels and offshore installations whilst on their working stations (regulation 3); prohibit the employment of seafarers in such a ship unless they hold a valid medical fitness certificate and provide for certain other medical certificates to be treated as equivalent (regulations 4, 5 and 6); provide for the issue of medical fitness certificates, on payment of the prescribed fee, by medical practitioners approved by the Secretary of State (regulation 7); provide for the period of validity of medical fitness certificates (regulation 8), for the suspension or cancellation of certificates in specified circumstances (regulation 9), and for the review of a refusal of a medical fitness certificate, or the suspension or cancellation of a certificate, by a medical referee appointed by the Secretary of State (regulation 10); and provide for the transfer to day work of seafarers who are suffering health problems due to performing work at night (regulation 11). Regulation 12 provides for the keeping of records and the making of returns by medical practitioners. Regulations 13 to 17 provide for inspection, detention, compensation and penalties. A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been produced and a copy placed in the library of both Houses of Parliament. Copies may be obtained from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG (telephone number 023 8032 9380). Merchant Shipping Notices are published by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Copies may be obtained from Mail Marketing (Scotland), Unit 6, Bloomsgrove Industrial Estate, Norton Street, Nottingham NG7 3JG (telephone: 0115 901 3336; fax: 0115 901 3334; e-mail address: mca@promo-solution.com). The Codes of Practice are published by, and copies may be obtained from, The Stationery Office. International Labour Organization Conventions are published by the International Labour Office and copies may be obtained from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, CH-211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. A Transposition Note has been prepared and copies may be obtained from the Seafarer Health and Safety Branch of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
Confidence
0.72 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