Merchant Shipping Act 1995

Return of offenders

283 Return of offenders

(1) The powers conferred on a British consular officer by subsection (2) below are exercisable in the event of any complaint being made to him—

(a) that any offence against property or persons has been committed at any place (ashore or afloat) outside the United Kingdom by any master or seaman who at the time when the offence was committed, or within three months before that time, was employed in a United Kingdom ship; or

(b) that any offence on the high seas has been committed by any master or seaman belonging to any United Kingdom ship.

(2) Those powers are—

(a) to inquire into the case upon oath, and

(b) if the case so requires, to take any steps in his power for the purpose of placing the offender under the necessary restraint and sending him by United Kingdom ship as soon as practicable in safe custody to the United Kingdom for proceedings to be taken against him.

(3) The consular officer may, subject to subsections (4) and (5) below, order the master of any United Kingdom ship bound for the United Kingdom to receive and carry the offender and the witnesses to the United Kingdom; and the officer shall endorse upon the agreement of the ship such particulars with respect to them as the Secretary of State requires.

(4) A consular officer shall not exercise the power conferred by subsection (3) above unless no more convenient means of transport is available or it is available only at disproportionate expense.

(5) No master of a ship may be required under subsection (3) above to receive more than one offender for every 100 tons of his ship’s registered tonnage, or more than one witness for every 50 tons of his ship’s registered tonnage.

(6) The master of any ship to whose charge an offender has been committed under subsection (3) above shall, on his ship’s arrival in the United Kingdom, give the offender into the custody of some police officer or constable.

(7) If any master of a ship, when required under subsection (3) above to receive and carry any offender or witness in his ship—

(a) fails to do so; or

(b) in the case of an offender, fails to deliver him as required by subsection (6) above;

he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

(8) The expense of imprisoning any such offender and of carrying him and witnesses to the United Kingdom otherwise than in the ship to which they respectively belong shall be paid out of money provided by Parliament.

(9) References in this section to carrying a person in a ship include affording him subsistence during the voyage.