UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 13(4) of The Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Control of Vibration at Work) Regulations 2007

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

4 A worker who fails to comply with regulation 11(2) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 13(4)?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person fails to comply with regulation 11(2).
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Control of Vibration at Work) Regulations 2007, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
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 October 2007
In force from
23 February 2008
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 Council Directive 2002/44/EC (OJ No L 177, 6.7.2002, p.13) on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (vibration) (sixteenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC). They apply to United Kingdom ships wherever they may be and non-United Kingdom ships in United Kingdom waters. The Regulations impose duties on employers to protect workers who may be exposed to risk from exposure to vibration at work. The Regulations apply to both hand-arm and whole-body vibration. They make provision for— a action values and limit values for daily exposure to vibration (regulation 5); b risk assessment (regulation 6); c elimination or, where elimination is not reasonably practicable, reduction of exposure to vibration; d measures to reduce exposure to vibration to as low a level as is reasonably practicable; e actions to be taken at action values and limit values; f prohibition on exceeding limit values (regulation 7); g information, instruction and training (regulation 8); h health surveillance (regulation 9); i consultation (regulation 10); j the grant of exemptions by the Secretary of State (regulation 12); and k offences, detention, inspection and penalties (regulations 11 and 13 to 20). These Regulations are made under the powers in the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 except in relation to their application to Government ships where the powers are provided by section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972. Copies of British Standard BS EN ISO 5349-1:2001 and BS EN ISO 5349-2:2001, relating to measurement and evaluation of human exposure to hand-transmitted mechanical vibration are obtainable from British Standards Institution, BSI House, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL. International Standard ISO 2631-1:1997, relating to measurement and evaluation of human exposure to whole-body mechanical vibration and shock, referred to in the Schedule is obtainable from the International Standards Organisation, 1, rue de Varembé, Case postale 56CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland. A Regulatory Impact Assessment and a Transposition Note have been prepared and a copy has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. Copies can be obtained from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1EG (telephone number 02380 329100). Merchant Shipping Notices can 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 orders: mca@promo-solution.com). They may also be accessed via the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s website http://www.mcga.gov.uk.

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”
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