Merchant Shipping Act 1988 (repealed)

5 Representative persons. U.K.

(1) Where the entitlement of any ship to be registered is, by virtue of any provision of section 4, conditional on the appointment of a representative person in relation to the ship, the owner of the ship shall—

(a) before applying for the ship to be registered, appoint an individual or body corporate satisfying the prescribed requirements to be the representative person in relation to the ship, and

(b) secure that, so long as the ship remains registered, an individual or body corporate satisfying those requirements is so appointed.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) the prescribed requirements are—

(a) that the representative person is either—

(i) an individual resident in the United Kingdom, or

(ii) a body corporate incorporated in the United Kingdom and having its principal place of business there; and

(b) such other requirements as the Secretary of State may by regulations prescribe.

(3) Where subsection (1) applies to a ship, any person who is registered under section 59(2) of the 1894 Act (registration of ship’s manager) in relation to the ship shall, if that person is such an individual or body corporate as is mentioned in subsection (2)(a)(i) or (ii) above, be treated for the purposes of this Part of this Act as the representative person for the time being appointed in relation to the ship.

(4) The owner of any ship in relation to which any representative person is for the time being appointed shall—

(a) on applying for the ship to be registered, notify the registrar to whom the application is made of the name and address of the representative person; and

(b) in the event of any change in the identity, or in the address, of the representative person so appointed, notify the registrar of the ship’s port of registry of the name and address of the new representative person, or (as the case may be) of the new address, as soon as practicable after the change occurs;

and the registrar in question shall record any particulars notified to him in pursuance of this section in the register kept by him under Part I of the 1894 Act.

(5) Any document required or authorised, by virtue of any statutory provision, to be served for the purpose of the institution of, or otherwise in connection with, proceedings for an offence under the Merchant Shipping Acts, or under any instrument in force under those Acts, shall, where the person to be served is the owner of a registered ship, be treated as duly served on him if—

(a) delivered to any representative person for the time being appointed in relation to the ship, or

(b) sent to any such person by post at the address notified (or, as the case may be, last notified) to the registrar under subsection (4) in relation to that person, or

(c) left for any such person at that address.

(6) Any person who contravenes subsection (1)(b) or (4)(b) above shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the third level on the standard scale.