UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 5(3) of The Merchant Shipping (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Carbon Dioxide Emissions) and the Port State Control (Amendment) Regulations 2017 (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 A master who fails to comply with regulation 4(3) is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction—

a in England and Wales to

a fine; or

b in Scotland or Northern Ireland to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 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 5(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. On these words an offence is committed where a master fails to comply with regulation 4(3).
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Merchant Shipping (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Carbon Dioxide Emissions) and the Port State Control (Amendment) Regulations 2017, 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
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
4 August 2017
In force from
1 October 2017
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 are made to support the operation of Regulation (EU) No. 2015/757 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport and amending Directive 2009/16/EC (O.J. L123, 19.5.2015, p. 55.) (“the 2015 Regulation”). The 2015 Regulation creates a mechanism for monitoring and reporting carbon dioxide emissions from ships and for reporting other information at national and European Union level. Compliance with the 2015 Regulation is to be demonstrated by a document of compliance which must be carried on board the ship. The Regulations create a requirement for a ship entering or leaving a UK port to carry a valid document of compliance (regulation 4), the failure to produce the document of compliance is a criminal offence (regulation 5) and the ship may be detained (regulation 6). A ship which is the subject of an expulsion order issued by another EEA State may not enter a port in the United Kingdom (regulation 7), but the Secretary of State has a discretion to permit a ship which is the subject of an expulsion order to enter a specific port or anchorage (regulation 8). Where the validity of a detention is questioned the matter may be referred to arbitration (regulation 9) and compensation awarded (regulation 10). The Regulations also amend the Merchant Shipping (Port State Control Regulations) 2011 (S.I.2011/2601) to make it a requirement for an inspection under those regulations to include a check that the ship is carrying a document of compliance; this will apply to inspections carried out on and after 30th June 2019. The Regulations also correct an error in the drafting in regulations 2 and 3 of those regulations (regulation 11). The Secretary of State is required to review the operation and effect of regulations 3 to 10 of these Regulations and publish a report before 1st October 2022 and within every five years after that (regulation 12). Following a review it will fall to the Secretary of State to consider whether the Regulations should remain as they are, or be revoked or be amended. A further instrument would be needed to revoke the Regulations or to amend them. A full Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it is not expected to have significant impact on the public or voluntary sectors and only minimal impact on the private sector is foreseen. A Regulatory Triage Assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction
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