Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Act 1982

21 Safety zones around installations

(1) The Secretary of State may by order establish a safety zone around any installation which, or part of which, is maintained, or is in the course of being assembled or dismantled, in waters to which this section applies.

(2) A safety zone shall not extend more than five hundred metres from the installation to which it relates but, subject to that, may extend to waters outside waters to which this section applies.

(3) A vessel shall not enter or remain in a safety zone except under and in accordance with the terms of an order made or consent given by the Secretary of State.

(4) If a vessel enters or remains in a safety zone in contravention of subsection (3) above, then, subject to subsection (5) below, its owner and its master shall each be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; and

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine or to both.

(5) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that the establishment of the safety zone was not, and would not on reasonable enquiry have become, known to the master.

(6) Where the commission by any person of an offence under this section is due to the act or default of some other person, that other person, as well as the first-mentioned person, shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(7) Where a body corporate is guilty of an offence under this section and that offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members this subsection shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

(8) Proceedings for an offence under this section may be taken, and the offence may for all incidental purposes be treated as having been committed, in any place in the United Kingdom.

(9) The waters to which this section applies are—

(a) tidal waters and parts of the sea in or adjacent to the United Kingdom up to the seaward limits of territorial waters; and

(b) waters in any area designated under section 1(7) of the [1964 c. 29.] Continental Shelf Act 1964 (in this Act referred to as "the 1964 Act").

(10) In this section " installation " does not include any part of a pipe-line within the meaning of section 33 of the 1975 Act other than apparatus or works which are by virtue of that section to be treated as associated with a pipe or system of pipes for the purposes of Part III of that Act.

(11) Section 2 of the 1964 Act (which is superseded by this section) shall cease to have effect.