The Merchant Shipping (Merchant Navy Reserve) Regulations 1989

• Citation: S.I. 1989/662
• Sections: 6

Section 1 Citation and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Merchant Navy Reserve) Regulations 1989 and shall come into force on 12th May 1989.

Section 2 Call-out

The Secretary of State may call-out members of the Merchant Navy Reserve if appropriate in the light of the state of international tension and the need to prepare for the defence of the realm. Such call-out may apply to all members of the Merchant Navy Reserve, or to individual members or classes of members.

Section 3 Notification

Each member of the Merchant Navy Reserve shall be served notice of any call-out by such means as the Secretary of State thinks fit. Such notice shall specify a place to which the member must report, if different from his allocated reporting station, and a time by which he must report. In addition the Secretary of State may generally notify members of a call-out by television or radio broadcasts, or notices in newspapers with national circulations.

Section 4 Reporting

Members of the Merchant Navy Reserve personally notified of a call-out shall report to their allocated reporting station or other place of which they are notified, as the case may be, within the time specified: provided that any member who is unable to do so within that specified time shall report as soon as possible to the nearest office of the Merchant Navy Establishment Administration or to the nearest Department of Transport Marine Office.

Section 5 Service

(1) Service by a member in the Merchant Navy Reserve shall commence when he reports for duty, wherever that takes place, in response to a call-out by the Secretary of State.

(2) Where a member has commenced service in accordance with paragraph (1), he shall serve on any vessel, or at any place of duty, to which he is assigned without absence.

(3) Service in the Merchant Navy Reserve shall continue until a member is notified by the Secretary of State that his call-out is ended, or until the Secretary of State makes a general notification (in the manner specified in regulation 3) that call-out for all or specified members or classes of members is finished, whichever is the sooner (so far as appropriate to him).

Section 6 Offences

(1) Contravention of the requirement to report for duty in regulation 4 or of the requirement to serve in regulation 5(2) shall be an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding the third level on the standard scale.

(2) It shall be a defence to a charge of contravention of the requirement in regulation 5(2) to serve without absence that the member can show that he had been granted leave of absence. Signed by authority of the Secretary of State