UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 18(4) of The Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Medical Certification) Regulations 2010

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 Any person who—

a obstructs

a relevant inspector in the exercise of his powers under regulation 20, or

b fails without reasonable excuse to comply with

a requirement made under regulation 20, is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine of an amount 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 person
Conduct
obstructing an official exercising a power
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

the exercise of his powers under regulation 20, or b fails without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement made under regulation 20, is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of an amount not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 18(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Medical Certification) Regulations 2010.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

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 (2010-04-06); 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
10 March 2010
In force from
6 April 2010
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 Regulation 1.2 of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (Cmd. 7049). The Regulations also implement Clause 13 of the Annex to Directive 1999/63/EC (O.J. No.L167, 02.07.1999, p.33) as amended by Article 2.4 of Directive 2009/13/EC (O.J. No. L124, 20.05.2009, p.30). They apply to seafarers on sea-going United Kingdom ships wherever they may be. Regulation 18 (Inspection) also applies to sea-going ships other than United Kingdom ships, while they are in a United Kingdom port or United Kingdom waters. Regulations 6 and 7 provide that seafarers working on seagoing United Kingdom ships must possess medical fitness certificates and carry them on board a ship on which they are working, and preclude employers from employing seafarers who do not have such a certificate. In limited circumstances and for limited periods of time, a seafarer may work on a ship without a medical fitness certificate and, in those circumstances, an employer may employ that seafarer. Regulations 8 to 11 make provision as to the issuing and validity of medical fitness certificates and for equivalent certificates to be accepted as medical fitness certificates in certain circumstances. Regulation 12 provides that seafarers must report medical conditions to the medical practitioner or other authority who issued their medical fitness certificate. Where this obligation applies, a medical certificate will be suspended until such time as the medical practitioner or authority has assessed the seafarer’s condition. Regulation 13 provides that, where there has been a significant change in a seafarer’s medical fitness, or where the medical practitioner who issued a medical fitness certificate was not in possession of full details about the seafarer and, if those details were appreciated the certificate would not have been issued, or where such a certificate has not been issued in compliance with these Regulations, a medical practitioner may suspend or cancel the certificate. Regulation 14 provides that the Secretary of State must arrange for the review by a medical referee of certain decisions by a medical practitioner. An application for review must be made within one month of the date or notification of the decision challenged, unless the Secretary of State agrees that a longer period is appropriate. Regulation 15 provides that where a medical practitioner certifies that a seafarer on night watchkeeping duties suffers from health problems which the medical practitioner considers are because the seafarer works at night, and where an employer is able to transfer the seafarer to other suitable work which is not performed at night, the employer must transfer the seafarer to that work. Regulation 16 provides that medical practitioners and medical referees must keep records, and must send to the Secretary of State, on request, a return of medical examinations which have been carried out. Regulation 17 provides that, on application and payment of the medical practitioner’s administrative costs, a replacement medical fitness certificate may be issued where the person to which that certificate was issued is no longer in possession of it. Regulation 18 provides for offences and penalties for persons, including seafarers and employers, who fail to comply with the Regulations. Regulation 19 applies to Government ships the inspection provisions, and the improvement notice and prohibition notice provisions, of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. Regulation 20 provides a power to inspect non-United Kingdom ships, and a power to report a failure to comply with the medical certification provisions of the Maritime Labour Convention to the government of the State in which that ship is entitled to be registered. The Regulations are made under sections 85(1)(a) and (b), (1A), (1B), (3) and (5) to (7) and 86(1) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 except in so far as they relate to government ships. Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 is used to extend the application of the Regulations to government ships, in order to implement the obligations of Regulation 1.2 of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 as respects such ships. Merchant Shipping Notices are published by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Copies may be obtained from M-Notices Subscriptions, PO Box 362, Europa Park, Grays Essex RM17 9Ay, tel 01375 484548, fax 01375 484556, email mnotices@ecgroup.co.uk. They may also be accessed via the MCA’s website http://www.mca.gov.uk, which also has details of any amendments or replacements. An Impact Assessment has been produced and is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum, which has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament and is available alongside the Regulations on the OPSI website at www.opsi.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