Merchant Shipping Act 1995

108 Returns of births and deaths in ships, etc

(1) The Secretary of State may make regulations under the following provisions of this section in relation to births and deaths in the circumstances specified in those provisions.

(2) Regulations under this section may require the master of any United Kingdom ship to make a return to a superintendent or proper officer of—

(a) the birth or death of any person occurring in the ship; and

(b) the death of any person employed in the ship, wherever occurring outside the United Kingdom;

and to notify any such death to such person (if any) as the deceased may have named to him as his next of kin.

(3) Regulations under this section may require 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 of any birth or death of a British citizen, a British Dependent Territories citizen or a British Overseas citizen which has occurred in the ship during the voyage.

(4) The returns referred to in subsections (2) and (3) above shall be for transmission to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen.

(5) Regulations under this section may require the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen to record such information as may be specified in the regulations about such a death as is referred to in subsection (2) above in a case where—

(a) it appears to him that the master of the ship cannot perform his duty under that subsection because he has himself died or is incapacitated or missing; and

(b) any of the circumstances specified in subsection (6) below exist.

(6) Those circumstances are that—

(a) the death in question has been the subject of—

(i) an inquest held by a coroner,

(ii) an inquiry held in pursuance of section 271, or

(iii) an inquiry held in pursuance of the [1976 c. 14] Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976;

and the findings of the inquest or inquiry include a finding that the death occurred;

(b) the deceased’s body has been the subject of—

(i) a post-mortem examination in England and Wales, or

(ii) a preliminary investigation in Northern Ireland;

and in consequence the coroner is satisfied that an inquest is unnecessary; or

(c) in Scotland, it does not appear to the Lord Advocate, under section 1(1)(b) of the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976, to be expedient in the public interest that an inquiry under that Act should be held.

(7) Regulations under this section may require the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen to send a certified copy of any return or record made thereunder 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.

(8) The Registrar General to whom any such certified copies are sent—

(a) shall record the information contained therein in the marine register; and

(b) may record in the marine 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 stillbirths) or deaths or certified copies of entries in such a register had been transmitted to the Registrar General in accordance with those enactments.

(9) Regulations under this section may make a contravention of any provision thereof an offence punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale or not exceeding a lesser amount.

(10) Regulations under this section may contain provisions 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 British citizen, a British Dependent Territories citizen or a British Overseas citizen which occurs in a ship not registered in the United Kingdom;

(b) any death of any such citizen who has been employed in a ship not registered in the United Kingdom which occurs elsewhere than in the ship; and

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

(11) References in this section to deaths occurring in a ship include references to deaths occurring in a ship’s boat.