§ Mr. Stanbrookasked the Secretary of State for Trade what provisions in the law relating to shipping specify a concept of British nationality; and which would require amendment if legislation were to be introduced to amend nationality law along the lines of the White Paper on British nationality.
§ Mr. TebbitThe full implications of these proposals for merchant shipping legislation are at present under examination, but the following provisions have been identified as requiring adaptation to fit the new regime:
Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (as amended by the British Nationality Act 1948)
s. 1—Restricts the ownership of British ships to British subjects.s.686—Gives jurisdiction to British courts to try British subjects for offences committed on board British ships.Pilotage Act 1913 (as amended by the Merchant Shipping Act 1979, Schedule 2, para 8(1)(b))
s.23(1)(a)—Restricts the grants of pilotage certificates to British subjects and the nationals of the EEC.Ships and Aircraft (Transfer Restriction) Act 1939
s.10—Extends the penal provisions of the Act to British subjects with certain exceptions.Merchant Shipping (Seamen's Documents) Regulations 1972
(SI 1972/1295)
Reg. 3(3)—Provides that certain categories of British subjects are not eligible for British seamen's cards.Merchant Shipping (Repatriation) Regulations 1979
(SI 1979/97)
Reg. 7(2), Reg. 8(1)— Provides for the repatriation of distressed British seamen.Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution) (Intervention) Order 1980
(SI 1980/1093)
Reg. 7(3)—Restricts the application of the order to citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, and United Kingdom companies.Merchant Shipping Act 1970
s.65—Enables the Secretary of State to make regulations providing for the custody of, and dealing with, inter alia, any property left in a country outside the United Kingdom by a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies dying while, or within six months of being, employed as a seaman in a ship registered outside the United Kingdom.Exercised by the Merchant Shipping (Property of Deceased Seamen) Regulations 1972 (SI 1973/1697).357Ws.72—Empowers the Secretary of State to make Regulations requiring 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 the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen of any birth or death of a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies which has occurred in a ship during the voyage.Exercised by the Merchant Shipping (Returns of Births and Deaths) Regulations 1979 (SI 1979/1577).