Merchant Shipping Act 1964
| Year | 1964 |
Merchant Shipping Act 1964
1964 CHAPTER 47
An Act to enable effect to be given to an International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea signed in London on 17th June 1960; to amend section 271 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894; and for purposes connected therewith.
[10th June 1964]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Application of Act of 1949 to new Convention
1 Application of Act of 1949 to Convention of 1960.
1. For the purpose of enabling effect to be given to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea signed in London on 17th June 1960 (in this Act referred to as ‘the Convention’) which replaces the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea signed in London on 10th June 1948 (in this Act referred to as ‘the Safety Convention’) the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act 1949(in this Act referred to as ‘the Act of 1949’) shall have effect as if—
New requirements for cargo ships
2 Cargo ship construction and survey rules.
(1) The Minister may make rules (in this Act referred to as ‘cargo ship construction and survey rules’) prescribing requirements for the hull, equipment and machinery of ships to which this section applies and requiring any such ships which are registered in the United Kingdom to be surveyed to such extent, in such manner and at such intervals as may be prescribed by the rules.
(2) The said rules shall include such requirements as appear to the Minister to implement the provisions of the Convention relating to the hull, equipment and machinery of such ships, except so far as those provisions are implemented by any other rules or regulations made under the Merchant Shipping Acts.
(3) This section applies to—
(a ) sea-going ships of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage; and
(b ) sea-going ships of not less than such lower tonnage and of such description as the Minister may by order made by statutory instrument specify;
other than passenger steamers, troopships, pleasure yachts, fishing vessels and ships not propelled by mechanical means; except that it applies to ships not registered in the United Kingdom only while they are within a port in the United Kingdom and are not exempted from the cargo ship construction and survey rules under the following provisions of this Act.
(4) The matters with regard to which fees may be prescribed by regulations under section 33 of the Act of 1949 shall include surveys required by the cargo ship construction and survey rules, and the provisions applied by section 13(2) of that Act (which relate to the delivery of declarations of survey and appeals to the court of survey) shall apply to such surveys whether or not they are made for the purpose of the issue of any certificate.
(5) In relation to surveys required by the cargo ship construction and survey rules which are carried out otherwise than by a surveyor of ships appointed under the Merchant Shipping Acts—
(a ) so much of the said section 33 as requires fees to be paid into the Exchequer shall not apply; and
(b ) the provisions applied by the said section 13(2) shall apply with such modifications as may be prescribed by the cargo ship construction and survey rules; and
(c ) the definition of ‘declaration of survey’ in section 36(1) of the Act of 1949 shall not apply.
(6) An order under subsection (3)(b ) of this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.
3 Cargo ship safety construction certificates and exemption certificates.
(1) If the Minister or such person as he may authorise for the purpose is satisfied, on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of a ship to which section 2 of this Act applies and which is registered in the United Kingdom, that the ship complies with the cargo ship construction and survey rules applicable to the ship and such voyages as she is to be engaged on he shall, on the application of the owner, issue in respect of the ship—
(a ) if the ship is of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage and is to be engaged on international voyages, a certificate in the form prescribed by the Convention;
(b ) in any other case, a certificate showing that she complies with the said rules;
and any such certificate is in this Act referred to as a cargo ship safety construction certificate.
(2) If the Minister, on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of such a ship, is satisfied that the ship is exempt, by virtue of any exercise by him of a power conferred on him by section 28 of the Act of 1949 or the cargo ship construction and survey rules, from any of the requirements of those rules applicable to the ship and to such voyages as she is to be engaged on, and that she complies with the rest of those requirements, he shall, on the application of the owner, issue in respect of the ship—
(a ) if she is of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage and is to be engaged on international voyages—
(i) an exemption certificate stating which of the requirements of the Convention, being requirements implemented by the rules and applicable as aforesaid, the ship is exempt from and that the exemption is conditional on the ship's plying on the voyages and complying with the other conditions (if any) specified in the certificate; and
(ii) a certificate showing that the ship complies with the rest of those requirements;
(b ) in any other case, a certificate showing that the ship complies with such of the requirements of the cargo ship construction and survey rules applicable to the ship and to the voyages she is to be engaged on as she is not exempt from;
and any certificate issued under paragraph (a )(ii) or paragraph (b ) of this subsection is in this Act referred to as a qualified cargo ship safety construction certificate.
(3) A certificate issued under this section, other than an exemption certificate, shall remain in force for five years or such shorter period as may be specified in it, but without prejudice to the Minister's power to cancel it; and an exemption certificate issued under this section shall remain in force for the same period as the corresponding qualified certificate.
(4) The Minister may by order made by statutory instrument extend the period for which a certificate under this section may be issued to a period not exceeding six years.
(5) Without prejudice to the power of extension conferred by section 13(5) of the Act of 1949, where a certificate under this section is in force in respect of a ship and the certificate was issued for a shorter period than is allowed under the foregoing provisions of this section, the Minister or any person authorised by him for the purpose may, if satisfied on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of the ship that it is proper to do so, grant an extension of the certificate for a period not exceeding one year, and not exceeding, together with the period for which it was issued and any period by which it has been previously extended under this subsection, the longest period for which it could have been issued under this section.
(6) In relation to a certificate issued or extended under this section by a person authorised by the Minister—
(a ) the provisions applied by section 13(8) of the Act of 1949 (which relate to the transmission, cancellation, surrender, posting-up and falsification of certificates issued by the Minister) except section 276 of the principal Act (transmission of certificates); and
(b ) section 33 of the Act of 1949 (fees);
shall apply as they apply in relation to certificates issued by the Minister, except that so much of the said section 33 as requires fees to be paid into the Exchequer shall not apply.
(7) An order under subsection (4) of this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.
4 Notice of alterations and additional surveys.
(1) The duty of the owner or master of a ship under subsection (2) of section 11 of the Act of 1949 to notify alterations and renewals shall extend, in relation to any ship in respect of which a certificate under section 3 of this Act is in force, to the hull, machinery and any equipment other than that mentioned in that subsection, but may, if the certificate was issued by a person authorised under the said section 3, be discharged by notifying him instead of the Minister.
(2) Subsection (4) of the said section 11 (additional survey and cancellation of certificates) shall have effect, in relation to any such ship, as if—
(a ) paragraph (a ) thereof extended to any alteration or renewal which is notifiable by virtue of this section; and
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