Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 2/1981

Read the first time on 17th February 1981.

An Act to amend the Merchant Shipping Act (Chapter 172 of the Revised Edition).

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows: —

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Act, 1981, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Amendment of section 2

2. Section 2 of the Merchant Shipping Act (referred to in this Act as the principal Act) is amended by deleting the definition of “Safety Convention” and substituting the following definition: —

“ “Safety Convention” means the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea signed in London on 1st November, 1974, and any amendment made thereto which has come into force and has been accepted by the Government;”.

Amendment of section 295

3. Section 295 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)	by deleting subsections (4) and (8); and
(b)	by renumbering subsections (5), (6) and (7) as subsections (4), (5) and (6), respectively.

Amendment of section 342

4. Section 342 of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after subsection (3), the following subsections: —

“(4) The Port Master may refuse to issue a port clearance to any ship which has anchored in the submarine cable corridor unless the owner, agent or master of the ship has deposited such sum of money or furnished such security as may be required by the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore in order to meet the costs of making good the damage, whether actual or suspected, to the submarine cable and its associated plant (referred to in this section as the submersible plant).

(5) Where the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore has reason to believe that the submersible plant has been damaged by a ship the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore may require the owner, agent or master of that ship to carry out an inspection or survey of the submersible plant in such manner as it considers necessary.

(6) The expenses of any inspection or survey of the submersible plant carried out under subsection (5) shall be paid by the owner, agent or master of the ship.

(7) For the purposes of this section, submarine cable corridor means the area designated by the Port Master as the submarine cable corridor.”.

Repeal and re-enactment of section 396

5. Section 396 of the principal Act is repealed and the following section substituted therefor: —

“Ships which may be registered

396.—(1) Subject to the provisions of any regulations made under this Part, any ship wherever built may be registered as a Singapore ship under this Part.

(2) The Minister may make regulations —

(a)	to prescribe different classes of Singapore ships;
(b)	to prescribe the conditions for the registration of a ship as a Singapore ship; and
(c)	to require Singapore ships to comply with such conditions as the Minister may prescribe from time to time for ships to continue to be registered as Singapore ships under this Part.”.

Amendment of section 399

6. Section 399 of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after subsection (2), the following subsection: —

“(3) The Registrar may refuse to register any ship as a Singapore ship under this Part without assigning any reason therefor.”.

Amendment of section 410

7. Section 410 of the principal Act is amended by renumbering the section as subsection (1), and by inserting immediately thereafter the following subsection: —

“(2) The Minister may cancel the certificate of registry of a Singapore ship if he is satisfied that it is not in the public interest for the ship to continue to be registered as a Singapore ship.”.

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