Merchant Shipping Act 1988 (repealed)

14 Eligibility for registration as British fishing vessel. U.K.

(1) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), a fishing vessel shall only be eligible to be registered as a British fishing vessel if—

(a) the vessel is British-owned;

(b) the vessel is managed, and its operations are directed and controlled, from within the United Kingdom; and

(c) any charterer, manager or operator of the vessel is a qualified person or company.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a) a fishing vessel is British-owned if—

(a) the legal title to the vessel is vested wholly in one or more qualified persons or companies; and

(b) the vessel is beneficially owned—

(i) as to not less than the relevant percentage of the property in the vessel, by one or more qualified persons, or

(ii) wholly by a qualified company or companies, or

(iii) by one or more qualified companies and, as to not less than the relevant percentage of the remainder of the property in the vessel, by one or more qualified persons.

(3) The Secretary of State may by regulations specify further requirements which must be satisfied in order for a fishing vessel to be eligible to be registered as a British fishing vessel, being requirements imposed—

(a) in connection with the implementation of any of the requirements specified in subsection (1)(a) to (c), or

(b) in addition to the requirements so specified,

and appearing to the Secretary of State to be appropriate for securing that such a vessel has a genuine and substantial connection with the United Kingdom.

(4) Where, in the case of any fishing vessel, the Secretary of State is satisfied that—

(a) the vessel would be eligible to be registered as a British fishing vessel but for the fact that any particular individual, or (as the case may be) each of a number of particular individuals, is not a British citizen (and is accordingly not a qualified person), and

(b) it would be appropriate to dispense with the requirement of British citizenship in the case of that individual or those individuals, in view of the length of time he has or they have resided in the United Kingdom and been involved in the fishing industry of the United Kingdom,

the Secretary of State may determine that that requirement should be so dispensed with; and, if he does so, the vessel shall, so long as paragraph (a) above applies to it and any such determination remains in force, be treated for the purposes of this Part as eligible to be registered as a British fishing vessel.

(5) Where any share in a vessel is beneficially owned jointly by persons not all of whom are qualified persons or companies, then, for the purposes of this section, the whole of that share shall be treated as beneficially owned by persons who are not qualified persons or companies.

(6) For the purpose of determining whether a fishing vessel is eligible to be registered as a British fishing vessel, the Secretary of State may, if he thinks fit, appoint a person—

(a) to investigate the eligibility of the vessel to be so registered, and

(b) to make a report of his conclusions to the Secretary of State;

and any person so appointed shall, for the purpose of conducting the investigation, have the powers conferred on an inspector by the provisions of section 27 of the M1 Merchant Shipping Act 1979 (other than paragraphs (d) to (h) of subsection (1) of that section).

(7) In this section—

• “qualified company” means a company which satisfies the following conditions, namely—

(a) it is incorporated in the United Kingdom and has its principal place of business there;

(b) at least the relevant percentage of its shares (taken as a whole), and of each class of its shares, is legally and beneficially owned by one or more qualified persons or companies; and

(c) at least the relevant percentage of its directors are qualified persons;

• “qualified person” means—

(a) a person who is a British citizen resident and domiciled in the United Kingdom, or

(b) a local authority in the United Kingdom; and

“the relevant percentage” means 75 per cent. or such greater percentage (which may be 100 per cent.) as may for the time being be prescribed.

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 14 modified (temp.) by S.I. 1989/2006, art. 3

Marginal Citations

M1 1979 c. 39.