reg 7 Employment of seafarers
(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), no person may employ another person as a seafarer on a ship to which these Regulations apply unless that other person has been issued with a medical fitness certificate which is still valid and is not suspended. (2) A person may continue to employ as a seafarer, on a ship to which these Regulations apply, a person whose medical fitness certificate has expired during the course of a voyage until— (a) the first port of call at which it is possible for the seafarer to make an application for a medical fitness certificate and be examined by a medical practitioner, or (b) the expiry of three months starting on the date of expiry of the certificate, whichever is the sooner. (3) In urgent cases, with the Secretary of State's approval, if a person who is a seafarer— (a) does not hold a valid medical fitness certificate, but (b) has held a medical fitness certificate for a period of not less than 24 months (or in the case of a person under 18 years at the date of issue of the certificate, 12 months) and that certificate has expired no earlier than one month from the date on which the seafarer joined a ship to which these Regulations apply, another person may employ that person as a seafarer on that ship until the first port of call at which it is possible for an application for a medical fitness certificate as respects that seafarer to be made and for that seafarer to be examined by a medical practitioner, but in any case not for a period exceeding three months. (4) No person may employ a person as a seafarer in a ship to which these Regulations apply in a capacity of sea service or in a geographical area precluded by any restriction in that person's medical fitness certificate. (5) No person may employ a person as a seafarer in a ship to which these Regulations apply in such a way as to breach a condition of the person's medical fitness certificate.