The Merchant Shipping (Oil Pollution) (Bunkers Convention) Regulations 2006

Government ships

21.—(1) Section 167 (Government ships) is amended as follows.

(2) For subsection (2), there is substituted—

“(2) In relation to a ship owned by a State and for the time being used for commercial purposes—

(a) it shall be sufficient compliance with section 163(2) if there is in force a certificate issued by the government of that State and showing that the ship is owned by that State and that any liability for pollution damage as defined in Article I of the Liability Convention will be met up to the limit prescribed by Article V of that Convention; and

(b) it shall be sufficient compliance with section 163A(2) if there is in force a certificate issued by the government of that State and showing that the ship is owned by that State and that any liability for pollution damage as defined in Article 1 of the Bunkers Convention will be met up to the limits set out in Chapter II of the Convention in Part I of Schedule 7.”.

(3) After subsection (3), there is added—

“(4) Every Bunkers Convention State shall, for the purposes of any proceedings brought in a court in the United Kingdom to enforce a claim in respect of a liability incurred under section 153A, be deemed to have submitted to the jurisdiction of that court, and accordingly rules of court may provide for the manner in which such proceedings are to be commenced and carried on; but nothing in this subsection shall authorise the issue of execution, or in Scotland, the execution of diligence, against the property of any State.”.