UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 10(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Bridge Visibility) (Small Passenger Ships) Regulations 2005

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

1 If a ship to which these Regulations apply proceeds, or attempts to proceed, on any voyage without complying with the requirements of these Regulations, the owner and master shall each be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 master
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 a master 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 10(1)?

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 (Bridge Visibility) (Small Passenger Ships) Regulations 2005.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2005-09-06); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
15 August 2005
In force from
6 September 2005
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 apply to passenger ships under 45 metres in length which are engaged in voyages as described in regulation 3(1). The Regulations implement the recommendations of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch on bridge visibility on passenger ships set out in their Report into the loss of “the Marchioness”. The provision contained in these Regulations was previously contained in the Merchant Shipping (Passenger Ships of Classes IV, V, VI and VI(A) (Bridge Visibility) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/2357), which were repealed by the Merchant Shipping (Safety of Navigation) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/1473) (“the 2002 Regulations”). The 2002 Regulations make provision for bridge visibility for ships of 45 metres in length and above in accordance with the requirements of the SOLAS Convention, but do not make provision for ships below that length. These Regulations require ships to be so constructed that the helmsman has good visibility over an arc of 360 degrees of the horizontal plane. Where existing ships cannot fully meet the requirements for all round visibility a dedicated lookout must be posted to cover the area which is obscured from the steering position. Provision is made in the Regulations for exemptions, penalties and detention. A full 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.. Merchant Shipping Notices can be read or downloaded from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency website (www.mcga.gov.uk). Printed copies can be obtained from Mail Marketing (Scotland) Ltd, Unit 6 Bloomsgrove Industrial Estate, Norton Street, Nottingham, NG7 3JG. Copies of the SOLAS Convention, and its Protocols and amendments, and of IMO resolutions, may be obtained from the IMO at 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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