UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 24(2) of The Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) 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 who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement, duty or prohibition in regulation 10(1), (4), (5) or (7) commits an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

“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: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses so far as is reasonably practicable, reasonably practicable; which element that governs was not determined; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

2 A person who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement, duty or prohibition in regulation 10(1), (4), (5) or (7) commits an offence.

What would breach regulation 24(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any requirement, duty or prohibition in regulation 10(1), (4), (5) or (7).
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2026.

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
16 April 2026
In force from
15 May 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 revoke and replace the Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/1743) (“the 2012 Regulations”). The Regulations set out the procedures in relation to the reporting and investigation of specified casualties and incidents which are collectively defined as an “accident”, including the purpose and scope of an investigation, the content of an investigation, and how an investigation is to be carried out. The requirements for reporting accidents and incidents and the publication of reports and summaries are also provided for. The Regulations in particular— align the definitions to those in the Code of the International Standards and Recommended Practices for a Safety Investigation into a Marine Casualty or Marine Incident (Casualty Investigation Code) adopted by the IMO by Resolution MSC.255(84) on 16th May 2008 (“the IMO Code”) where appropriate (regulation 2); provide a definition of what constitutes an accident (regulation 3); specify when a duty to report an accident arises (regulation 6) and the required information (Schedule 1); set out the circumstances in which the Chief Inspector must or may carry out a safety investigation, and for terminating investigations (regulation 8); make provision for co-operation with other States who have an interest in participating in a safety investigation (regulation 14); make provision about disclosure of information, documents and records received by the Chief Inspector or produced in connection with the exercise of the Chief Inspector’s functions under the Regulations, and enable the Chief Inspector to disclose certain evidence to other investigating authorities who can demonstrate a legal entitlement to have that evidence (regulations 15 and 16); require the Chief Inspector to publish a safety report, or an interim report within 12 months of the date of the accident being notified to the Chief Inspector, and make provision as to what the report must include, reflecting the requirements of the IMO Code, and in certain circumstances, enable the Chief Inspector to publish a simplified report (regulation 17); make further provision as to disclosure of prescribed information relating to reports (regulation 18); make provision about other publications and recommendations of the Chief Inspector (regulations 20 – 21); specify penalties for offences under the Regulations (regulation 24); revoke the 2012 Regulations, an amending instrument, and an assimilated EU Commission Regulation and amend the Merchant Shipping (Watercraft) Order 2023 (S.I. 2023/35) to apply the provisions of these Regulations, with modification, in relation to watercraft (as defined in that Order) (regulation 25). A full Regulatory Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it is not expected to have significant impact on the private, public or voluntary sectors. Instead a de minimis assessment has been prepared as this instrument is likely to entail some costs for business, but the net impact is likely to be below £10 million per year. The de minimis assessment is published alongside the Explanatory Memorandum to these Regulations at www.legislation.gov.uk. Copies of the IMO Code may be obtained from the International Maritime Organization at 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR.

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 “commits 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