The Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection) Regulations (Amendment) Regulations 2003

Made: 14th November 2003

Laid before Parliament: 19th November 2003

Coming into force: 11th December 2003

The Secretary of State, after consulting the persons referred to in section 86(4) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995[^f00001], in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by section 85(1)(a) and (b), (3) and (5) to (7) and section 86(1) of that Act, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and interpretation

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• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection) Regulations (Amendment) Regulations 2003 and shall come into force on 11th December 2003.

• (2) In these Regulations “the principal Regulations” means the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Large Ships) Regulations 1998[^f00002].

Interpretation of principal Regulations

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Application of principal Regulations

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Principal Regulations: Repairs, alterations etc.

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Principal Regulations: Machinery spaces of Category A

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Principal Regulations: Fire detection and alarm systems etc.

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Principal Regulations: Emergency escape breathing devices

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Principal Regulations: Cargo tank purging and/or gas freeing

8

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Principal Regulations: Gas monitoring systems for tankers and combination carriers

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Principal Regulations: Deep-fat cooking equipment

10

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Principal Regulations: Operational readiness and maintenance

11

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Amendment of Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Small Ships) Regulations 1998

12

Regulation 1(7)(a)(i) of the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Small Ships) Regulations 1998[^f00006] shall be amended as follows:

• (a) after “VII(A)” there shall be inserted “VII(T)”,

• (b) after “VIII(A)” there shall be inserted “VIII(T), VIII(A)(T), and

• (c) after “IX” there shall be inserted “IX(A)(T)”.

Signed

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport

David Jamieson — Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, — Department for Transport — 14th November 2003

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations implement requirements of Chapter II-2 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea 1974 (“the SOLAS Convention”) as amended by its Protocol of 1988 and by Resolution MSC.99(73) of December 2000 of the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organisation, and make other amendments to the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Large Ships) Regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998/1012) (“the Large Ships Regulations”) and the Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection: Small Ships) Regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998/1011) (“the Small Ships Regulations”).

The amendments to the Large Ships Regulations, which will apply from the dates mentioned in regulation 3:

• (a) impose requirements as to the standards for repairs, alterations, etc. (regulation 4),

• (b) require fixed local application fire-fighting systems to be installed in Category A machinery spaces of Class I, II, IIA ships of over 2,000 gross tons (regulation 5),

• (c) require emergency escape breathing devices to be installed in passenger ships of Class I, Class II and Class 11A, and other ships of over 500 gross tons (regulation 7),

• (d) impose additional requirements as to cargo tank purging and/or gass freeing and as to gas monitoring systems for tankers of over 500 gross tons (regulations 8 and 9),

• (e) impose requirements as to deep-fat cooking equipment (regulation 10),

• (f) impose requirements as to maintenance plans, training manuals and fire safety operations booklets (regulation 11).

The amendments to the Small Ships Regulations clarify the application of those Regulations as respects the ships referred to in regulations 24 to 29 of those Regulations.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and copies can be obtained from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Spring Place, 105 Commercial Road, Southampton SO15 1EG. A copy has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament.

Merchant Shipping Notices can be obtained from Mail Marketing (Scotland), Unit 6, Bloomsgrove Industrial Estate, Norton Street, Nottingham NG7 3JG.

The SOLAS Convention, its Protocols and IMO resolutions and circulars can be obtained from the International Maritime Organisation, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1995 c. 21; sections 85 and 86 were amended by the Merchant Shipping and Maritime Security Act 1997 (c. 28), section 8.

[^f00002]: S.I. 1998/1012, amended by S.I. 1999/992, S.I. 2000/2687, S.I. 2001/1638 and S.I. 2002/ .

[^f00006]: S.I. 1998/1011, amended by S.I. 1999/992 and S.I. 2000/2687.

Editorial notes

[^key-eb05027e04e982700753942bca63e6e4]: Reg. 1 in force at 11.12.2003, see reg. 1(1)

[^key-a5aa3f0cbaeb0dffa1c6722bfb850218]: Reg. 12 in force at 11.12.2003, see reg. 1(1)

[^key-ccd1414da45af94771f02fb365913f66]: Regs. 2-11 revoked (15.6.2023) by The Merchant Shipping (Fire Protection) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/568), reg. 1(1), Sch. 1 Pt. 2 (with reg. 5)