Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Offshore Installations (Logbooks and Registration of Death) Regulations 1972 and shall come into operation on 30th November 1972.

(2) In these Regulations—

“installation logbook” means a logbook obtained from the Department of Trade and Industry; and

“manager” includes, where no manager is appointed pursuant to section 4 of the Act, any person made responsible by the owner for safety, health and welfare on board an offshore installation.

(3) These Regulations shall not apply to installations registered as vessels (whether so registered in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) which are dredging installations or which are in transit to or from a station, or in relation to installations which are unmanned.

(4) The Interpretation Act 1889 shall apply to the interpretation of these Regulations as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.

Logbooks

2.—(1) An installation logbook shall be maintained on every offshore installation at all times when the installation is in waters to which the Act applies:

Provided that in the case of a fixed installation under construction or in course of assembly or dismantlement it shall be sufficient compliance with this Regulation to maintain the installation logbook on an attendant vessel.

(2) An installation logbook shall be maintained on an offshore installation notwithstanding that another logbook may be required to be maintained on it as a registered vessel.

3.—(1) There shall be entered in every installation logbook before any other entry is made in the book—

(a)the registered name or other designation of the relevant installation;

(b)the name of the owner and the address to which communications for him are to be sent;

(c)the name of the person or persons appointed as manager;

and if at any time while the logbook is in use these entries are no longer correct they shall be amended appropriately.

(2) Entries shall be made in the installation logbook regarding every occurrence affecting or likely to affect the safety of the installation or the safety, health and welfare of persons on or working from the installation or involving the installation and endangering persons in its neighbourhood and in particular, but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, of—

(a)the assumption and relinquishment of responsibility by managers, manning changes, visits by vessels, aircraft and hovercraft and, in the case of a mobile offshore installation, of its movements and locations;

(b)adverse weather conditions, collisions, structural changes and major repairs, surveys and any other occurrence relevant to the safety, seaworthiness or stability of the installation;

(c)safety drills, accidents and injuries to persons, and the occurrence of disease and death;

(d)emergencies and apprehended emergencies and measures taken to meet or avoid them, whether relating to the installation or to personnel;

(e)the placing under restraint of any person pursuant to section 5(6) of the Act;

(f)any visit of an inspector appointed under section 6(4) of the Act or other person acting at the direction of the Secretary of State and any action taken as a result of investigations made or notices served by such inspector or other person.

(3) Entries in an installation logbook shall be in the English language and shall be signed by the manager. Every entry shall be made and signed within 24 hours of the time at which the occurrence the subject of the entry took place or as soon as practicable thereafter and shall include the time at which the occurrence took place and the time at which the entry was made and signed.

(4) A manager upon relinquishing charge of an installation shall make in the logbook a declaration that all the requisite entries for the period during which he has been in charge have been duly made and deliver the logbook to the person taking charge as manager or, if no one is succeeding him, to the owner.

4.—(1) No entry in an installation logbook shall be erased or rendered illegible and no page or part of a page of such a book shall be removed therefrom or mutilated.

(2) An existing entry in an installation logbook shall not be amended or cancelled except by a further entry.

5.  Where an entry is made in an installation logbook recording that a person has been placed under restraint on an installation the owner of the installation shall as soon as practicable notify the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry of the relevant occurrence.

6.—(1) A single installation logbook shall not be used for the making of entries for a period exceeding six months.

(2) An installation logbook which is full or which has been in use for six months or which relates to an installation removed from waters to which the Act applies or which for any other reason is not to be further used shall as soon as practicable be sent to the Secretary of State for permanent retention by him.

Records of persons at an installation

7.—(1) At all times when there is an obligation to maintain an installation logbook on any installation there shall also be maintained on the installation a separate continuous record of the persons on or working from the installation which shall include:—

(a)the full names of every such person;

(b)the date and time of his arrival and, if he is no longer on or working from the installation, of his departure;

(c)the reason for his presence there;

(d)the name and address of his employer:

Provided that in the case of a fixed installation under construction or in course of assembly or dismantlement it shall be sufficient compliance with this Regulation to maintain such record on an attendant vessel.

(2) The owner of the installation shall require the manager to notify him or a person designated by him at least once in every 24 hours of the persons then on or working from the installation and of all changes among the persons on or working therefrom which have taken place since he was last so notified and to provide him with any other information necessary to enable him to maintain the record referred to in paragraph (3).

(3) The owner of the installation shall maintain at a place ashore in the United Kingdom a record of the persons on or working from the installation and such record shall include the information specified in paragraph (1) together with the nationality, the date of birth and the usual residence of those persons and the name, address and relationship of their next-of-kin (if any).

(4) The owner of the installation shall, on demand, produce to the Secretary of State a copy of the record of persons required to be maintained by the manager of the installation pursuant to paragraph (1) or, if this is not practicable, a copy of the record of persons required to be maintained by the owner pursuant to paragraph (3), being in either case a copy certified by the owner or a person authorised by him as a true copy.

Registration of deaths and persons lost

8.  Where any person—

(a)dies on an offshore installation or is lost from an installation in circumstances such that it is reasonable to believe that he has died; or

(b)dies in or on a lifeboat, liferaft or other emergency survival craft belonging to an offshore installation or is lost therefrom in such circumstances as aforesaid; or

(c)otherwise dies or is lost in such circumstances as aforesaid in the neighbourhood of an offshore installation while engaged in any operation connected with the installation;

and the death or loss is not required to be registered under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 or under any regulations made under section 72 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1970 (which relates to returns of births and deaths in ships), a return of death in the form set out in the Schedule hereto shall be made in accordance with Regulation 9.

9.—(1) Where an obligation to make a return of death arises, the manager of the relevant installation shall complete and sign Part I of a form of return and despatch the form to the owner of the installation as soon as is practicable and in any event within 10 days of his becoming aware of the death or loss to which the return relates.

(2) An installation owner receiving from a manager a form of return of death with Part I completed shall within 10 days thereof complete Part II of the form and send the form duly signed by him or on his behalf to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen.

(3) Without prejudice to the preceding provisions of this Regulation and to the provisions of Regulation 12, a return of death which is not made within the times specified in this Regulation for the making thereof shall not be invalid by reason only that it is not made within those times.

10.  When a person dies or is lost in circumstances in which an obligation to make a return of death arises under Regulation 8, the owner of the relevant installation shall as soon as is practicable and in any event within 48 hours of first becoming aware of the death or loss—

(a)if he was the employer of the dead or missing person, notify any person known to him to be, or nominated to him as, the next-of-kin of such person; or

(b)if he was not his employer, notify any person known to him to have been the employer of that person at the time of his death or loss.

11.—(1) When the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen receives a return made pursuant to Regulation 9 he shall send a copy of that return certified by him or a person authorised by him as being a true copy thereof—

(a)where the deceased was immediately before his death ordinarily resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for Scotland or the Registrar General for Northern Ireland, as the case may be; and

(b)in any other case, to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for England and Wales.

(2) If the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen is satisfied that there is an error or omission in any return received by him as aforesaid, he may, in accordance with evidence of the true state of affairs relating to the return, send corrected or supplementary particulars in respect thereof to the appropriate Registrar General.

(3) A Registrar General who duly receives any such certified copy as aforesaid shall record information contained therein in the register kept by him called the marine register, together with such additional information as appears to him desirable for the purpose of ensuring the completeness and correctness of the register.

Offences and penalties

12.—(1) A contravention of any requirement of Regulation 2(1), 3, 6(1), 7(1) or 9(1) shall be an offence for which the manager of the relevant installation at the time of the contravention shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100.

(2) A contravention of any requirement of Regulation 2(1), 5, 6, 7, 9(2) or 10 shall be an offence for which the owner of the relevant installation shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100.

(3) A contravention of any requirement of Regulation 4 shall be an offence for which the person occasioning the contravention shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £100.

(4) If any person wilfully refuses to give any information necessary for the maintenance of the records required to be maintained by Regulation 7, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50.

(5) If any person wilfully enters any false information in a logbook or record required to be maintained by Regulation 7 or makes any false certificate in any return of death or, knowing such certificate to be false, sends the same as true to any person, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £400.

(6) It shall be a defence in any proceedings for an offence under paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Regulation for the person charged to prove:—

(a)that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence; and

(b)that the relevant contravention was committed without his consent, connivance or wilful default.

SCHEDULE

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Regulations relate to offshore installations to which the Mineral Workings (Offshore Installations) Act 1971 applies.

The Regulations require an official logbook to be maintained in respect of each installation and entries to be made therein of occurrences relating to the safety of the installation and the safety, health and welfare of persons on or working from the installation or the safety of persons in its neighbourhood. Completed logbooks are to be returned to the Department of Trade and Industry.

The Regulations also provide for the maintenance on board each installation and ashore of records of persons on or working from the installation and for the making of returns to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen of the death or loss of any person on or from the installation. An obligation is also imposed on the installation owner to inform the next-of-kin or the employer of the deceased or lost person.