These Regulations replace the Merchant Shipping (Accident Investigation) Regulations 1989. They include, with amendments, the provisions for the reporting and investigation of marine accidents contained in those Regulations and also those in the Merchant Shipping (Safety Officials and Reporting of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences) Regulations 1982 and the Fishing Vessels (Reporting of Accidents) Regulations 1985. The latter Regulations are revoked; the former are amended separately by the Merchant Shipping (Safety Officials and Reporting of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences) (Amendment) Regulations 1994 to remove those provisions now covered by these Regulations.
The principal effect is to incorporate the various requirements in one set of Regulations and to remove the differences between the provisions relating to merchant ships and those for fishing vessels. Some revision has been made to the requirements, chiefly for clarification.
The main changes are:
the requirement for dangerous occurrences to be reported, previously only applicable to merchant ships, is now extended to fishing vessels;
the exclusion of non-UK ships from certain of the requirements no longer applies if they are within a UK port when the accident occurs or are operating as passenger vessels to or from a port in the UK;
the previous bar on publication of Reports if a prosecution or Inquiry into Conduct is contemplated is changed to a discretionary provision;
provision is made for the Inspector’s findings to be presented at an inquest or fatal accident inquiry, and in appropriate cases for this procedure to be a substitute for written consultation with criticized parties.