UK Offence Report

6 1 If a vessel proceeds on a voyage in contravention of— a regulation 4(5), or b regulation 5(5), the owner…

regulation 6 of The Merchant Shipping (Local Passenger Vessels) (Crew) Regulations 2006

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

6 1 If a vessel proceeds on a voyage in contravention of— a regulation 4(5), or b regulation 5(5), 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

on to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. 2 It is a defence to a charge under this regulation that the person charged took all reasonable steps to avoid commission of the offence.

What would breach regulation 6?

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 (Local Passenger Vessels) (Crew) Regulations 2006, 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
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2007-01-01); 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
5 December 2006
In force from
1 January 2007
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 re-enact that part of regulation 14 (additional crew) of the Merchant Shipping (Local Passenger Vessels) (Masters’ Licences and Hours, Manning and Training) Regulations 1993 (S.I. 1993/1213, the “1993 Regulations”) as relates to the qualifications to be held by members of the crew of passenger ships operating on inland waterways and on some short coastal voyages. The remaining provisions of regulation 14 have been superseded by the provisions in the Merchant Shipping (Survey and Certification) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/1210) relating to passenger certificates for such vessels. The Regulations also make transitional provision for approvals given under the 1993 Regulations and re-enact regulation 16 of those Regulations (power to detain) for the purpose of enforcement. The greater part of the 1993 Regulations is being contemporaneously revoked and replaced by the Merchant Shipping (Inland Waterway and Limited Coastal Operations) (Boatmasters’ Qualifications and Hours of Work) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/3223). The provisions of regulation 14 re-enacted in these Regulations have been modified to take account of those Regulations. No Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in connection with these Regulations as they are not considered to have any impact on the costs or savings of business or the voluntary or public sectors.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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”
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