Merchant Shipping (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1998

Amendment of Merchant Shipping Act, 1894.

2.—The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 , is hereby amended—

(a) in section 221—

(i) by the deletion of paragraph (a), and

(ii) in paragraph (b)—

(I) by the deletion of “, if the offence does not amount to desertion, or is not treated as such by the master,”, and

(II) by the deletion of “; and also, except in the United Kingdom, he shall be liable to imprisonment for any period not exceeding ten weeks with or without hard labour”,

(b) by the repeal of sections 222, 224, 225 and 238, and

(c) in section 680—

(i) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (1):

“(1) Subject to any special provisions of this Act, a person who has been found guilty of an offence under this Act shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.”,

and

(ii) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1):

“(1A) Where an offence to which subsection (1) of this Act applies is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent, connivance or approval of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of a person being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or any other person who was acting or purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of an offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if that person were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.”.