Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 1996 (No. 2145 of 1996).

These Regulations consolidate the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 1983 and subsequent amendments. They incorporate the most recent amendments to Annex I of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Sea 1973, as amended by the Protocol of 1978 to that Convention (MARPOL), which were adopted at the 36th session of the Marine Environmental Committee (MEPC) to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in November 1994. These amendments provide a legal basis for port states to carry out inspections of shipboard operational procedures (regulation 34(1)(b) and (c)).The Regulations also introduce certain extensions permitted by the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention 1982, in particular: (i) discharges by non-United Kingdom ships into the United Kingdom's controlled waters beyond the territorial sea and, subject to certain restrictions on institution of proceedings contained in regulation 38, elsewhere, are prohibited; but (ii) where proceedings for a discharge of type mentioned in paragraph (i) are instituted, they may be suspended if the flag state institutes proceedings.