1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution) (Limits) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 5th September 1996.

2.  —The areas of sea defined in the Schedule to these Regulations, being above areas for the time being designated under section 1(7) of the Continental Shelf Act 1964(1), are hereby specified as areas within which the jurisdiction and rights of the United Kingdom are exercisable in accordance with Part XII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(2)for the protection and preservation of the marine environment.