Merchant Shipping (Registration, etc.) Act 1993

12(1)Omit sections 459 to 461 of the 1894 Act (provisions for the detention of unsafe ships no longer reflected in modern practice).

(2)After section 30 of the 1988 Act (offences where ship is unsafe), there shall be inserted the following section—

“30APower to detain unsafe ship

(1)Where a ship in a port in the United Kingdom appears to a relevant inspector to be an unsafe ship the ship may be detained.

(2)The power of detention conferred by subsection (1) above is exercisable in relation to foreign ships as well as United Kingdom ships.

(3)The officer detaining the ship shall serve on the master of the ship a detention notice which shall—

(a)state that the relevant inspector is of the opinion that the ship is an unsafe ship;

(b)specify the matters which, in the relevant inspector’s opinion, make the ship an unsafe ship; and

(c)prohibit the ship from going to sea until it is released by competent authority.

(4)In the case of a ship which is not a British ship the officer detaining the ship shall cause a copy of the detention notice to be sent as soon as practicable to the nearest consular officer for the country to which the ship belongs.

(5)In this section—

• “competent authority” means any officer mentioned in section 692(1) of the 1894 Act;

• “relevant inspector” means any person mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of section 76(1) of the [1970 c. 36] Merchant Shipping Act 1970; and

• “unsafe ship” means a ship which is not fit to go to sea as mentioned in section 30(1) of this Act;

and the reference to going to sea shall be construed in accordance with subsection (9) of section 30.”.

(3)Sections 4 and 5 of the 1984 Act (arbitration and compensation) shall apply in relation to a detention notice under section 30A of the 1988 Act and the matters specified in the notice as those sections apply in relation to a prohibition notice under section 2 of that Act and the matters specified in a prohibition notice, subject, however, to the following modifications.

(4)The modifications referred to above are as follows:

(a)the substitution of references to the relevant inspector (within the meaning of section 30A) for references to the inspector referred to in those sections;

(b)the right to refer a question to the arbitrator shall be available to the owner of the ship whether or not the master of the ship also exercises that right;

(c)the giving of the notice referring the question to the arbitrator shall not suspend the operation of the detention notice unless, on the application of the person referring the question, the arbitrator so directs;

(d)the arbitrator shall have regard, in coming to his decision, to any other matters not specified in the detention notice which appear to him to be relevant to whether the ship was or was not an unsafe ship;

(e)the arbitrator shall include in his decision a finding whether there was or was not a valid basis for the detention of the ship as an unsafe ship.

(5)In the application of sub-paragraphs (3) and (4) above to Scotland any reference to an arbitrator shall be construed as a reference to an arbiter.

(6)Any provision of the Merchant Shipping Acts which deems a ship to be an unsafe ship for the purposes of section 459 or 462 of the 1894 Act shall be construed as deeming the ship to be an unsafe ship for the purposes of section 30A of the 1988 Act.