UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 8(3) of The Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection) Regulations 2003 (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 Any contravention of these Regulations which is

a matter contained in Part G, regulation

19 of the MCA’s SOLAS 2002 Chapter II-2 Publication, shall be an offence punishable on summary conviction by

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

a term not exceeding two years or

a fine, or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 8(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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection) Regulations 2003, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
14 November 2003
In force from
11 December 2003
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 requirements of Chapter II-2 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea 1974 (“the SOLAS Convention”) as amended by its Protocol of 1988 and by the Resolution MSC.99(73) of the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organisation. The scope of application of the Regulations is set out in regulation 3: they apply to certain ships constructed on or after 1st July 2002. The Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Large Ships) Regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998/1012) are disapplied to such ships (regulations 3 and 4). The substantive requirements of the Regulations are those in Chapter II-2 of SOLAS Convention, as set out in the MCA Publication “Construction—Fire Protection, Fire Detection and Fire Extinction implementing SOLAS Chapter II-2, 2002” (regulation 5). Provision is made for exemptions to be granted by the Secretary of State where he is satisfied that compliance with those requirements would be impracticable or unreasonable and an equivalent level of safety will be provided (regulation 6), and for approvals as provided for in the SOLAS Convention (regulation 7). Provision is made for offences and penalties for non-compliance (regulation 8) and for detention (regulation 9). A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and copies can be obtained from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG. A copy has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. The MCA Publication “Construction—Fire Protection, Fire Detection and Fire Extinction implementing SOLAS Chapter II-2, 2002” can be obtained from The Stationery Office, and is also available on the MCA website http://www.mcga.gov.uk. Merchant Shipping Notices can be obtained from Mail Marketing (Scotland), Unit 6, Bloomsgrove Industrial Estate, Norton Street, Nottingham NG7 3JG. The SOLAS Convention, its Protocols and IMO resolutions can be obtained from the International Maritime Organisation, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR.

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