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Safety of passenger boats and their passengers and crews.
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18.—(1) The Minister may by regulations make such provision as he considers necessary or expedient for the purpose of ensuring the safety of passenger boats and their passengers and crews.
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(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), regulations under subsection (1) may—
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(a) require passenger boats to comply with specified standards of seaworthiness (including stability),
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(b) require passenger boats to comply with specified standards of construction and maintenance,
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(c) require specified classes of passenger boats to carry one or more of the following, that is to say, specified life-saving, fire-fighting, radio and navigation equipment,
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(d) prohibit the having on board or the carriage of passengers by vessels, or specified classes of vessels, the subject of licences unless there are in force policies of insurance under which the owners of the vessels or, if the vessels are on hire, the persons to whom they are on hire are insured to a specified extent against specified risks, and
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(e) make provision for ascertaining and testing the standards of competence of masters and of any other members of the crews of vessels the subject of licences, whether by examination, interview or otherwise, and the prohibition of those who do not reach such standards of competence as the Minister considers appropriate from working as masters or, as the case may be, other members of the crews of such vessels and the prohibition of owners of such vessels from employing as captains or other members of the crews of the vessels those who do not reach such standards as aforesaid.
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(3) Regulations under this section may make provision for such consequential, incidental, ancillary and supplementary matters (including, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, the charging of fees) as the Minister considers necessary or expedient.
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(4) Different provision may be made in regulations under this section for different classes of passenger boats.
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(5) (a) If in respect of a vessel there is a contravention of a regulation under this section (other than subsection (2) (d)), the owner and the master of the vessel shall each be guilty of an offence and shall each be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.
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(b) If, in respect of a vessel, there is a contravention of a regulation under subsection (2) (d), the owner of the vessel (or, if the vessel is on hire, the person to whom it is on hire) and the master of the vessel shall each be guilty of an offence and shall each be liable—
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(i) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both, or
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(ii) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.
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