(1)This Act applies to the following documents, that is to say—
(a)any bill of lading;
(b)any sea waybill; and
(c)any ship’s delivery order.
(2)References in this Act to a bill of lading—
(a)do not include references to a document which is incapable of transfer either by indorsement or, as a bearer bill, by delivery without indorsement; but
(b)subject to that, do include references to a received for shipment bill of lading.
(3)References in this Act to a sea waybill are references to any document which is not a bill of lading but—
(a)is such a receipt for goods as contains or evidences a contract for the carriage of goods by sea; and
(b)identifies the person to whom delivery of the goods is to be made by the carrier in accordance with that contract.
(4)References in this Act to a ship’s delivery order are references to any document which is neither a bill of lading nor a sea waybill but contains an undertaking which—
(a)is given under or for the purposes of a contract for the carriage by sea of the goods to which the document relates, or of goods which include those goods; and
(b)is an undertaking by the carrier to a person identified in the document to deliver the goods to which the document relates to that person.
(5)The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for the application of this Act to cases where a telecommunication system or any other information technology is used for effecting transactions corresponding to—
(a)the issue of a document to which this Act applies;
(b)the indorsement, delivery or other transfer of such a document; or
(c)the doing of anything else in relation to such a document.
(6)Regulations under subsection (5) above may—
(a)make such modifications of the following provisions of this Act as the Secretary of State considers appropriate in connection with the application of this Act to any case mentioned in that subsection; and
(b)contain supplemental, incidental, consequential and transitional provision;
and the power to make regulations under that subsection shall be exercisable by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.