UK Offence Report

Offences, penalties and defence

regulation 25(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Hours of Work) Regulations 2018

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 It is an offence for—

a the master of the ship to breach regulation 5(1), (3)(b) or (4)(b), 8(1), 9(1), 10, 11(2), 12(1), (4)(a), (5) or (7),

13 or 17;

b the employer of an employed seafarer to breach regulation 5(1), 8(1) or 16;

c the person authorised by the master of the ship to breach regulation 9(1), 10, 12(1), (4)(a) or (5) or 13;

d the shipowner to breach regulation 5(1), 8(1), 12(7),

14 or 17.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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 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 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

4 In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations it is a defence for the defendant to show that all reasonable steps had been taken by the defendant to ensure compliance with these Regulations.

What would breach regulation 25(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 (Maritime Labour Convention) (Hours of Work) Regulations 2018.

Penalty

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

level 5 is unlimited in England and Wales for offences committed on or after 12 March 2015 (LASPO 2012 s.85, S.I. 2015/664).

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
29 January 2018
In force from
6 April 2018
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.

The Regulations consolidate and update the Merchant Shipping (Hours of Work) Regulations 2002 (S.I. 2002/2125). These Regulations implement— the majority of the provisions of Council Directive 1999/63/EC, as amended by Council Directive 2009/13/EC, concerning the Agreement on the organisation of working time of seafarers concluded by the European Community Shipowners’ Association and the Federation of Transport Workers’ Unions in the European Union (OJ L 167, 2.7.99, p.33); article 15 of Council Directive 2008/106/EC of 19th November 2008 on the minimum level of training of seafarers (recast), as amended by article 1(14) of Council Directive 2012/35/EU of 21st November 2012; article 19 of Directive 2009/16/EC of 23rd April 2009 on port state control, as amended by article 1 of Council Directive 2013/38/EU of 12th August 2013; and article 3 of Council Directive 2013/54/EU of 20th November 2013 concerning certain flag state responsibilities for compliance with and enforcement of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006. Regulation 5 makes it the duty of shipowners, masters and employers to ensure that seafarers are provided with at least the minimum hours of rest, as set out in regulation 6. Regulation 7 allows for certain exceptions to the minimum hours of rest to be authorised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, while regulation 11 allows masters to make exceptions to the hours of rest in the case of emergencies. Regulation 8 makes provision regarding hours of rest for non-UK ships that are compliant with the Maritime Labour Convention (“MLC”). Regulation 9 requires masters to post up a table of watchkeeping and hours of rest. Equivalent provision is made by regulation 10 for non-UK ships that are compliant with the MLC. Regulation 12 requires records of seafarers’ hours of rest to be recorded and makes other, related provision. Regulation 13 makes equivalent provision for non-UK, MLC compliant ships. Regulation 14 obliges shipowners to provide any information to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on watchkeepers or seafarers working at night that it might request. Regulation 15 entitles seafarers to a minimum amount of annual and additional leave. Regulation 16 makes equivalent provision for seafarers on non-UK, MLC compliant ships. Shipowners and masters must grant shore leave to seafarers under regulation 17. Regulation 18 provides that where a seafarer is entitled to hours of rest or paid leave other than under these Regulations, the seafarer may rely on whichever is more beneficial, but may not rely on both entitlements separately. Regulation 19 makes provision for the inspection of UK and non-UK, non-MLC compliant ships for the purpose of checking compliance with these Regulations. Regulation 20 makes provision for the inspection of non-UK, MLC compliant ships in certain circumstances. Detention of certain ships that are found to breach these regulations is provided for by regulation 21, with their release in certain circumstances provided for by regulation 22. Regulation 23 applies the provisions on arbitration and compensation contained in sections 96 and 97 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 to detention notices issued under these Regulations as those provisions apply to detention notices issued under section 95 of that Act. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is obliged under regulation 24 to publish information, specified in Merchant Shipping Notice 1877(M), concerning ships which have in the past month been detained under these Regulations. Regulation 25 makes breach of certain provisions in these regulations an offence and provides a “reasonable steps” defence for all offences. A seafarer who considers that a shipowner has denied them their rights under regulation 15(1)(a) or (b) may complain to an employment tribunal under regulation 26. The tribunal may award compensation in respect of any successful complaint. Regulation 27 makes provision for the extension of the period within which a claim may be brought. Regulation 28 prevents parties from contracting out of the provisions of these Regulations. Regulation 29 contains a provision requiring the Secretary of State to review the Regulations and publish a report within 3 years of their coming into force and every 5 years after that. Schedule 1 provides the definition of a “workforce agreement”. Schedule 2 makes consequential amendments to various primary and secondary legislation. 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 484 548, fax 01375 484 556, email: mnotices@ecgroup.co.uk. They may also be accessed via the MCA’s website: www.dft.gov.uk/mca, which also has details of any amendments or replacements. The MLC is available on the website of the International Labour Organisation at www.ilo.org/global/standards/maritime-labour-convention/lang--en/index.htm. Copies of the Maritime Labour Convention may be obtained as a priced publication from www.tsoshop.co.uk, or from TSO Customer Services, PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN, tel: +44 (0) 333 202 5070. A transposition note has been prepared and copies may be obtained by writing to the Seafarer Safety and Health Manager, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1EG. To the extent that these Regulations re-enact S.I. 2002/2125, there will be no additional impact on the private or voluntary sector. To the extent that these Regulations make new provision, no additional impact on the private or voluntary sector is foreseen. Therefore no impact assessment has been produced for this instrument.

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 →

What Parliament said

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

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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