Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the Merchant Shipping (Formal Investigations) Rules 1985. The changes–

(a)

provide for the preparation and presentation of the case to the formal investigation to be done by the Attorney General (instead of, as previously, by the Secretary of State for Transport) in England and Wales, by the Lord Advocate in Scotland and, in Northern Ireland, by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland;

(b)

make consequential changes as a result of the repeal of section 55 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1970, and the implementation of section 33 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988;

(c)

amend the rule on awards of costs, as a consequence of changes to section 56 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1970 made in Schedule 5 to the 1988 Act;

(d)

alter the rules on the publication of the Report of the wreck commissioner.