{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-merchant-shipping-marine-equipment-regulations-2025/regulation-24",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-merchant-shipping-marine-equipment-regulations-2025/regulation-24.json",
  "legislation": "ukdsi/2025/9780348275520",
  "legislation_title": "The Merchant Shipping (Marine Equipment) Regulations 2025",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/draft-merchant-shipping-marine-equipment-regulations-2025",
  "path": "regulation/24",
  "kind": "regulation",
  "number": "24",
  "heading": "Offences and penalties",
  "text": "(1) The owner and master of a ship are each guilty of an offence, where—\n(a) equipment is placed on a ship otherwise than in compliance with regulation 5; or\n(b) any of the restrictions or conditions imposed by a certificate issued under regulation 8(4) are not complied with.\n(2) It is an offence for a person—\n(a) to affix a United Kingdom conformity mark to equipment which has not been granted United Kingdom conformity approval except where—\n(i) the equipment is listed in Annex 6 of Merchant Shipping Notice MSN 1874 and has been approved by the United States Coast Guard; or\n(ii) the United Kingdom conformity mark has been affixed in accordance with a specification of the Secretary of State pursuant to regulation 5(4)(c).\n(b) to fail to comply with any requirement in regulation 9(1), 12, 13, 18, 19 or 20;\n(c) to forge, counterfeit or otherwise alter, deface or remove any United Kingdom conformity mark or identification number affixed to equipment under these Regulations; or\n(d) to fail to comply with a direction, prohibition or restriction given under regulation 23.\n(3) A person guilty of an offence under this regulation is liable—\n(a) on summary conviction—\n(i) in England and Wales to a fine, and\n(ii) in Scotland and Northern Ireland to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or\n(b) on conviction on indictment—\n(i) except where the offence relates wholly or partly to a ballast water management system, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine, or both;\n(ii) where the offence relates wholly or partly to a ballast water management system, to a fine.\n(4) Where a body corporate is guilty of an offence under this regulation and that offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate is guilty of an offence.\n(5) Where the affairs of the body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (4) applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with that member's functions of management as if that member were a director of the body corporate.\n(6) Where an offence under this regulation committed by a Scottish partnership is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, a partner, that partner as well as the partnership is guilty of that offence.\n(7) In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations, it is a defence for the person charged to show that all reasonable steps had been taken by that person to ensure compliance with the provision concerned.\n(8) In this regulation, “ballast water management system” has the meaning given in regulation 2 of the Merchant Shipping (Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments) Regulations 2022.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "“Partnership” is defined in section 1 of the Partnership Act 1890 (c. 39). Section 1 was amended by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998 (c. 43), section 1(1), Schedule 1, Part X and by S.I. 2009/1941, article 2(1) and Schedule 2, paragraph 2. Section 4(2) makes provision as to the legal personality of a partnership in Scotland."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "S.I. 2022/737."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9780348275520/regulation/24",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-30T14:38:36.122638+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}