The UK will tighten up its laws to ensure that operators of UK-flagged ships face jail if they try to disguise the ownership or history of their vessels.
The government has launched an eight-week consultation on updating its laws to ensure they are in line with international agreements aimed at preventing deceptive practices.
It said the fraudulent registration of ships, the proliferation of fraudulent registries and other practices “pose a serious threat to the safety and security of international shipping”. The threats include sanctions evasion and environmental damage, it said.
The proposed changes are expected to have little effect on UK-flag vessels, as they are already standard practice. They will affect 492 passenger and cargo vessels mainly involved in international trading.
As well as enhanced inspections for tankers, the changes include enshrining in domestic law the need to display International Maritime Organization numbers on ships and ensuring that logbooks detailing changes in class, ownership and flag remain with the vessels.
They are necessary because the country’s laws are currently lagging behind what it had agreed on under the IMO’s Safety of Life at Sea Convention, and “the UK would be unable to take enforcement action against ships which are non-compliant”, according to a consultation document.
The offences that the government is looking to tackle are punishable by jail terms of up to two years for the master and fines for the company. It wants the changes to be introduced by next February.
Katy Ware, director of UK Maritime Services, said: “These proposed new measures have the dual benefits of helping to tackle fraud while making conditions safer for sailors and passengers.
“They are another indication of the UK’s commitment to safety at sea and determination to combat criminality.”
The UK has been a prominent advocate in tackling registry fraud and has called for the rehabilitation of a measure to ensure a genuine link between vessels and flag states.
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