Merchant Shipping Act 1970

72 Returns of births and deaths in ships, etc. U.K.

(1) The Board of Trade may make regulations—

(a) requiring the master of any ship registered in the United Kingdom to make a return to a superintendent or proper officer for transmission to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen of any birth or death occurring in the ship and of the death, wherever occurring outside the United Kingdom, of any person employed in the ship, and to notify any such death to such person (if any) as the deceased may have named to him as his next of kin; and

(b) requiring the master of any ship not registered in the United Kingdom which calls at a port in the United Kingdom in the course of or at the end of a voyage to make a return to a superintendent for transmission to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen of any birth or death of a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies which has occurred in the ship during the voyage.

[F1 (c) requiring the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen to record such information as may be specified in the regulations about such a death as is mentioned in paragraph (a) above in a case where it appears to him that the master of the ship cannot perform the duty imposed on him by virtue of that paragraph in respect of the death because he has himself died or is incapacitated or missing and either—

(i) the death in question has been the subject of an inquest held by the coroner or an inquiry held in pursuance of section 61 of this Act or in pursuance of the M1 Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 and the findings of the inquest or inquiry include a finding that the death occurred, or

(ii) a post-mortem examination, or a preliminary investigation in Northern Ireland, has been made of the deceased’s body and in consequence the coroner is satisfied that an inquest is unnecessary, or

(iii) in Scotland, it does not appear to the Lord Advocate, under section 1(1)(b) of the said Act of 1976, to be expedient in the public interest that an inquiry under that Act should be held.]

(2) Regulations under this section may require the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen to send a certified copy of any return [F1 or record] made there under to the Registrar General for England and Wales, the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for Scotland or the Registrar General for Northern Ireland, as the case may require.

(3) The Registrar General to whom any such certified copies are sent shall record the information contained therein in a register kept by him for the purpose and to be called the marine register, and may also record in that register such additional information as appears to him desirable for the purpose of ensuring the completeness and correctness of the register; and the enactments relating to the registration of births and deaths in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland shall have effect as if the marine register were a register of births (other than still-births) or deaths or certified copies of entries in such a register and had been transmitted to the Registrar General in accordance with those enactments.

(4) Regulations under the preceding provisions of this section may make a contravention of any provision thereof an offence punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding [F2 level 2 on the standard scale].

(5) Regulations under this section may contain provisions for authorising the registration of the following births and deaths occurring outside the United Kingdom in circumstances where no return is required to be made under the preceding provisions of this section—

(a) any birth or death of a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies which occurs in a ship not registered in the United Kingdom;

(b) any death of a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who has been employed in such a ship which occurs elsewhere than in the ship; and

(c) any death of a person who has been employed in a ship registered in the United Kingdom which occurs elsewhere than in the ship.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words inserted by Merchant Shipping Act 1979 (c. 39), s. 30(1)

F2 Words substituted by virtue of (E.W.) Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48, SIF 39:1), s. 46; (S.) Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (c. 21, SIF 39:1), s. 289G and (N.I.) S.I. 1984/703 (N.I. 3), art. 5

Marginal Citations

M1 1976 c. 14.