Merchant Shipping (Registration, etc.) Act 1993

Pollution prevention: assimilation of inspection powers

17 For the purposes of the Oil Pollution Act other than sections 2(1) and 3—

(a) the functions of inspectors under section 728 of the 1894 Act to report to the Secretary of State on the matters specified in that section shall include the function of reporting to him on the matters specified in section 18(1)(a) and(b) of the Oil Pollution Act, and the functions of inspectors under the said section 18 shall not include that function; and sections 18(2) and 30(3) shall have effect accordingly;

(b) the powers conferred by section 18(6) of the Oil Pollution Act (which are conferred on harbour masters as respects vessels in their harbours) shall not be available, but the corresponding powers conferred by section 27 of the 1979 Act shall be available to harbour masters in relation to ships in their harbours;

(c) the extension of the power to test equipment effected, in relation to section 18 of the Oil Pollution Act, by section 29(5) of that Act shall be treated as an extension of the corresponding power in section 27 of the 1979 Act; and

(d) for references in section 30 to the Department of Commerce for Northern Ireland substitute references to the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland;

and, in section 18(1)(a), the reference to obligations shall be read as a reference to requirements and the reference to compliance as a reference to contravention.

18 The amendments made in the 1971 and 1974 Acts (liability and compensation for oil pollution damage) by section 34 of and Schedule 4 to the 1988 Act (in consequence of certain Conventions of 1984 which cannot now come into force) shall not have effect.