Pensions (Mercantile Marine) Act 1942
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1942 c. 26 |
Pensions (Mercantile Marine) Act, 1942
(5 & 6 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 26.
An Act to amend the Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force and Mercantile Marine) Act, 1939, as respects mariners and other seafaring persons; to explain the meaning of ‘physical injury’ in that Act and in the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1939, and to make a consequential amendment of section three of the last-mentioned Act.
[29th July 1942]
Be it enacted by the King'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:—
1 Additional injuries and damage in respect of which compensation may be paid.
(1) Sections three, four and five of the Pensions (Navy, Army, Air Force and Mercantile Marine) Act, 1939 (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’) (which sections empower the Minister of Pensions to make schemes for awards in respect of war injuries to mariners, pilots and other persons, and certain persons employed or engaged in ships forming part of His Majesty's Navy) shall, as amended by the subsequent provisions of this Act, apply in relation to injuries falling within this section which are not war injuries as defined by section ten of the principal Act as they apply in relation to war injuries as so defined; and section six of the principal Act (which provides for compensation for war damage to effects) shall, as amended by the subsequent provisions of this Act, apply in relation to loss and damage falling within this section which is not war damage as so defined as it applies in relation to war damage as so defined.
(2) The injuries falling within this section are physical injuries sustained on or after the third day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, at sea or in any other tidal water or in the waters of any harbour, and attributable to—
(a ) the taking of measures with a view to avoiding, preventing or hindering enemy action against ships, or as a precaution in anticipation of enemy action against ships, or for rescue or salvage purposes in consequence of enemy action against ships; or
(b ) the absence, by reason of circumstances connected with any war in which His Majesty may be engaged, of any aid to navigation for ships, or of any warning of danger to ships, being an aid or warning which would be normal in time of peace; or
(c ) the carriage, by reason of circumstances connected with any such war as aforesaid, of any cargo in a manner which would be abnormal in time of peace and involves danger to the ship in which the cargo is carried or to her crew; or
(d ) the existence on board ship of any other conditions arising out of any such war as aforesaid which would be abnormal in time of peace,
and the loss and damage falling within this section is loss and damage sustained and attributable as aforesaid:
Provided that in relation to injuries, loss or damage sustained in the waters of a harbour the measures specified in paragraph (a ) of this subsection do not include the prohibition or restriction of lights other than navigational lights.
(3) For the purposes of this section an injury or any loss or damage shall be treated as being attributable to the matters specified in paragraph (a ), in paragraph (b ), in paragraph (c ), or in paragraph (d ) of the last preceding subsection if, but only if, they substantially increased the risk of the peril occurring which caused the injury, loss or damage.
(4) In this section the expression ‘navigational light’ means a light displayed, whether on a ship or otherwise, as an aid to navigation for ships or as a warning of danger to ships.
2 Mariners.
(1) For subsections (1) and (2) of section three of the principal Act (which authorises the making of a scheme for awards to or for the benefit of mariners and their dependants in cases where mariners have sustained war injuries, or been detained, by reason of their service in British ships) there shall be substituted the following subsections:—
(1) The Minister may, with the consent of the Treasury, make a scheme for—
(a ) applying the provisions of any Naval War Pensions Order to persons in cases where their death or disablement is directly attributable to their having sustained war injuries, or suffered detention, by reason of their service as mariners in British ships;
(b ) the payment of allowances to or for the benefit of persons who have suffered detention as aforesaid or to or for the benefit of their dependants.
(2) The cases in which a person who has sustained an injury, or suffered detention, is to be treated as having sustained the injury, or suffered the detention, by reason of his service in a British ship as a mariner are where the injury, or the capture on which his detention was consequent, as the case may be, occurred—
(a ) while he was in the service of a British ship as a mariner;
(b ) in the case of a person normally employed as a mariner, while he was in the service of a seagoing British ship in the British Islands in which he was employed as master or a member of the crew thereof, notwithstanding that he was not employed in seagoing service in the ship;
(c ) while he was at a place outside the British Islands on leave from a British ship in which he was employed as a mariner and which was at a port outside the British Islands;
(d ) while he was at a place outside the British Islands in accordance with arrangements made or approved by or on behalf of the Minister of War Transport for having persons available for employment as mariners;
(e ) while he was at any place, except on land in the British Islands, in the course of proceeding to employment in a British ship as a mariner, or to a place to which he was going in accordance with such arrangements as aforesaid;
(f ) without prejudice to the last preceding paragraph, while he was at any place, except as aforesaid, in the course of returning to any part of the British Islands, to the country to which he belonged, or to any other country approved by or on behalf of the Minister of War Transport, from employment in a British ship as a mariner, or from a place at which he had been in accordance with such arrangements as aforesaid, and before he first arrived on land in that part of the...
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