UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 7(2) of The Merchant Shipping (EPIRB and PLB Registration and Radiocommunications) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

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

2 A person in breach of

a requirement in regulation 6(1) or (3) is guilty of an offence in respect of each case of non-compliance.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 7(2)?

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 (EPIRB and PLB Registration and Radiocommunications) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
18 March 2026
In force from
15 April 2026
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 prescribe new requirements for the registration of emergency position-indicating radio beacons (“EPIRBs”) and personal locator beacons (“PLBs”) which are carried on, or carried by persons on board, United Kingdom ships and hovercraft. These Regulations revoke (in regulation 2(2)) and replace the Merchant Shipping (EPIRB Registration) Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2000/1850) which prescribed registration requirements for EPIRBs alone, and (in Part 2 of the Schedule) make consequential amendments to the Merchant Shipping (Watercraft) Order 2023 (S.I. 2023/35) so as to apply the new registration requirements to watercraft as they apply to ships and hovercraft. Part 1 (regulations 1 to 4) makes general provision including interpretation and application. Regulation 2(1) gives effect to a number of amendments contained in Part 1 of the Schedule. Part 1 of the Schedule includes provision which amends the Merchant Shipping (Radiocommunications) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. 2021/1316) to give effect to amendments to Chapter IV (radiocommunications) of the Annex to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (“the Convention”), as well as provision which amends the Merchant Shipping (Radio Installations) Regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998/2070) and the Merchant Shipping (Fees) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/1104). Part 2 (regulations 5 and 6) makes provision for the registration requirements in respect of EPIRBs and PLBs. The information required to be registered is set out in Merchant Shipping Notice 1924 (M+F), and this is given effect by regulations 5(2) and 6(2) for EPIRBs and PLBs respectively. Part 3 (regulations 7 and 8) makes provision for enforcement. Regulation 7 makes it an offence by the owner and master of a ship if that ship is used in contravention of the registration requirements in regulation 5(1) or (3), as well as making it an offence by a person (the owner of a PLB) to fail to register particulars of the PLB in accordance with regulation 6(1) or (3). Regulation 8 contains power to detain a ship in cases of non-compliance with these Regulations. Merchant Shipping Notice 1924 (M+F) is available from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) of Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG (telephone 020 3817 2000 and email infoline@mcga.gov.uk) and on https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/merchant-shipping-notices-msns. The Convention and its Protocol of 1988 may be obtained in copy from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR and both are available on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) treaties database (https://treaties.fcdo.gov.uk/responsive/app/consolidatedSearch/). The text of the IMO Resolutions amending the Convention and Protocol may be obtained from the IMO in hard copy or at https://www.imo.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/IndexofIMOResolutions/Pages/Default.aspx. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private or voluntary sector is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum and a de minimis assessment have been prepared and are published alongside the 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 →

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