Merchant Shipping Act 1948

1 Accommodation for seamen

(1) The Minister may, after consultation with such organisation or organisations as appear to him to be representative both of owners of British ships and of seamen employed therein, make regulations with respect to the crew accommodation to be provided in ships of any class specified in the regulations, being ships in respect of which such regulations are authorised to be made by the next following section.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing subsection, regulations made thereunder may, in particular—

(a) prescribe the minimum space per man which must be provided in any ship to which the regulations;, apply by way of sleeping accommodation for seamen and apprentices, and the maximum number of persons by whom any specified part of such sleeping accommodation may be used ;

(b) regulate the position in any such ship in which" the crew accommodation or any part thereof may be located, and the standards to be observed in the construction, equipment and furnishing of any such accommodation ;

(c) require the submission to a surveyor of ships of plans and specifications of any works proposed to be carried out for the purpose of the provision or alteration of any such accommodation, and authorise the surveyor to inspect any such works ;

(d) provide for the maintenance and repair of any such accommodation, and prohibit or restrict the use of any such accommodation for purposes other than those for which it is designed ;

and may make different provision in respect of different classes of ships and in respect of crew accommodation provided for'' different classes of persons.

(3) In this Act the expression " crew accommodation " includes sleeping rooms, mess rooms, sanitary accommodation, hospital accommodation, recreation accommodation, store rooms and catering accommodation provided for the use of seamen and apprentices, not being accommodation which is also used by or provided for the use of passengers :

Provided that regulations made under this section may provide that any store rooms comprised in the crew accommodation of a ship shall, to such extent as may be prescribed by the regulations, be disregarded in estimating the space to be deducted from the tonnage of the ship under section seventy-nine of the principal Act in respect of crew accommodation.

(4) If the provisions of any regulations made under this section are contravened in the case of a ship, the owner or master of the ship shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.