# The Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2005, Regulation 10: Conduct of investigations


(1) If the Chief Inspector decides pursuant to regulation 7(1) that an investigation shall be carried out, it shall be undertaken by one or more inspectors at such times and places and in such manner as appear to them most conducive to achieving the objective set out in regulation 5.
(2) The Chief Inspector may also appoint one or more persons who are not inspectors appointed under the Act for the purpose of carrying out an investigation in circumstances where inspectors appointed under the Act are not conveniently available or where the persons appointed have special qualifications or experience, and such persons shall have the powers conferred on an inspector by section 259 and 267(8) of the Act.
(3) An investigation may extend to cover all events and circumstances preceding the accident together with subsequent events and circumstances which in the opinion of an inspector may have been relevant to its cause or outcome.
(4) Every person required to attend before an inspector shall be allowed the reasonable expenses of attending, payable by the Secretary of State.
(5) Any person, not being a solicitor or other professional legal adviser acting solely on behalf of the person required to attend, who—
(a) has been allowed by an inspector to be present; or
(b) has been nominated to be present by a person required to attend
at an oral examination before an inspector, may at any time be excluded from being present by the inspector with the agreement of the Chief Inspector, if—
(i) both the inspector and Chief Inspector have substantial reason to believe that his presence would hamper the investigation with the result that the objective in regulation 5 is likely to be hindered and future safety thereby endangered; and
(ii) the Chief inspector is satisfied, having regard to all the circumstances, that it is proper to exclude that person.
(6) Where a person nominated to be present has been excluded in accordance with paragraph (5), the person required to attend shall be entitled to nominate another person to be present at the oral examination in place of the excluded person and paragraph (5) shall then apply to that other person.
(7) Any document, record or information mentioned in regulation 9, properly required by an inspector to be produced for the purposes of an investigation (whether on board the ship involved or otherwise), may be retained by him until the investigation is completed.
(8) In relation to any investigation—
(a) where a preliminary examination has been conducted the Chief Inspector shall decide, having regard to the objective set out in regulation 5, whether it is appropriate in all the circumstances to conduct further investigation leading to publication of a report;
(b) the Chief Inspector may subsequently decide to discontinue the investigation at any time and shall make his reasons for doing so publicly available.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/881/regulation/10 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/merchant-shipping-accident-reporting-and-investigation-regulations-2005/regulation-10
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.