Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

15 Miscellaneous provisions as to certificates.

(1) A safety certificate, wireless telegraphy certificate, or exemption certificate issued by the Board of Trade shall not be in force for more than one year from the date of its issue, nor after notice is given by the Board to the owner, agent, or master of the ship in respect of which it has been issued, that the Board have cancelled the certificate.

(2) If a British ship registered in the United Kingdom, in respect of which any such certificate has been issued, is absent from the United Kingdom at the date when the certificate expires, the Board of Trade, or any person authorised by them for the purpose, may, if it appears proper and reasonable so to do, grant such an extension of the certificate as will allow the ship to return to the United Kingdom, but no such extension shall have effect for a period exceeding five months from the said date.

(3) Every such certificate shall be in such form as may be prescribed by rules made by the Board of Trade, and those rules shall make such provision as appears to the Board to be necessary for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article fifty-one of the Safety Convention, and may provide for combining a safety certificate in one document with a passenger steamer's certificate.

(4) Any such certificate, and any passenger steamer's certificate combined in one document with a safety certificate, may be signed on behalf of the Board of Trade by any person authorised by the Board for the purpose, and a certificate purporting to be so signed shall be admissible in evidence in like manner as if it had been signed by one of the persons mentioned in section seven hundred and nineteen of the principal Act.

(5) The following provisions of the principal Act shall apply to and in relation to every such certificate issued by the Board of Trade in the same manner as they apply to and in relation to a passenger steamer's certificate, namely, section two hundred and seventy-six (which relates to the transmission of the certificate to the owner of the steamer), section two hundred and seventy-seven (which relates to the fees to be paid for the certificate), section two hundred and seventy-nine (which relates to the cancellation of the certificate), section two hundred and eighty (which relates to the delivery up of the certificate) and section two hundred and eighty-one (which relates to the posting up of the certificate on the ship).

(6) The Board of Trade may request the Government of a country to which the Safety Convention applies to issue a general safety certificate, a short voyage safety certificate or a wireless telegraphy certificate in respect of a British ship registered in the United Kingdom, and a certificate issued in pursuance of such a request and containing a statement that it has been so issued shall have effect for the purposes of this Act as if it had been issued by the Board.