2025 No. 1094

Hovercraft

The Hovercraft (Application of Enactments) (Amendment) Order 2025

Made15th October 2025

Coming into force16th October 2025

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 15th day of October 2025Present,The King’s Most Excellent Majesty in Council

A draft of this Order has, in accordance with section 1(4) of the Hovercraft Act 1968¹, been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

Accordingly, His Majesty, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 1(1)(h) and (3) of the Hovercraft Act 1968, is pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy Council, to order as follows.

1 Citation, commencement and extent¶

1 This Order may be cited as the Hovercraft (Application of Enactments) (Amendment) Order 2025.

2 This Order comes into force on the day after the day on which it is made.

3 This Order extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

2 Amendment of the Hovercraft (Application of Enactments) Order 1989¶

1 The Hovercraft (Application of Enactments) Order 1989² is amended as follows.

2 For article 2 (inquiries and investigations into hovercraft casualties), substitute—

3 In article 3 (prevention of pollution by hovercraft)—

a in the entry for the Prevention of Oil Pollution Act 1971⁶—

i omit—

aa “2(2A), (2B) and (4), 5, 7, ”;

bb “20,”; and

cc “, 24”; and

ii after “11”, insert “, 11A”;

b omit the entries from “The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 1983” to “The Merchant Shipping (Reception Facilities for Garbage) Regulations 1988”;

c before the entry for the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, insert—

;

d in the entry for the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, for “and 129.” substitute—

;

e after the entry for the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution) (Law of the Sea Convention) Order 1996, insert—

The Merchant Shipping (Control of Pollution) (SOLAS) Order 1998⁹

Article 2.

The Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Port Waste Reception Facilities) Regulations 2003¹⁰

The whole Regulations.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships) Order 2006¹¹

Articles 2 and 3.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Sewage and Garbage) Order 2006¹²

Articles 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships) Regulations 2008¹³

The whole Regulations.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution from Noxious Liquid Substances in Bulk) Regulations 2018¹⁴

The whole Regulations.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations 2019¹⁵

The whole Regulations.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Sewage from Ships) Regulations 2020¹⁶

The whole Regulations.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships) Regulations 2020¹⁷

The whole Regulations.

The Merchant Shipping (Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Harmful Substances) (Amendment) Regulations 2024¹⁸

Regulations 3 to 6, 8 to 12 and 28 to 34.

;

f for the words from “shall apply” to the end, substitute—

4 In article 4 (safety regulations), for “Sections 21 and 22 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1979 shall” substitute “Sections 85 and 86 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995”.

5 After article 5 (manning), insert—

6 Fees

Section 302 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 applies in relation to hovercraft and to persons connected with hovercraft as it applies in relation to ships and to persons connected with ships, and for that purpose has effect subject to the modification that for the reference to a ship, there is substituted a reference to a hovercraft.

7 Power to make ambulatory references to international instruments

Section 306A of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 applies in relation to hovercraft and to persons connected with hovercraft as it applies in relation to ships and to persons connected with ships, and for that purpose has the effect that, where subordinate legislation made under that Act—

a includes ambulatory provision within the meaning of subsection (4) of that section; and

b applies, by virtue of this Order, in relation to hovercraft and to persons connected with hovercraft,

such ambulatory provision applies in relation to the application of that subordinate legislation in relation to hovercraft and to persons connected with hovercraft as it applies in relation to the application of that subordinate legislation in relation to ships and to persons connected with ships.

6 For Part C of Schedule 1, substitute—

Modifications of the Merchant Shipping (Formal Investigations) Rules 1985 applied by Article 2

1 In rule 2(1)—

a for the definition of “accident”, substitute the following—

;

b omit the definition of “officer”.

2 In rule 4, omit paragraphs (3) and (4).

3 In rule 10, omit the second sentence.

4 For rule 12 substitute—

7 Omit—

a Schedule 1, Parts A and B; and

b Schedule 2.

EXPLANATORY NOTE¶

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends the Hovercraft (Application of Enactments) Order 1989 (S.I. 1989/1350) (“the 1989 Order”), which makes provision for specified primary and secondary maritime legislation to apply to hovercraft as it applies to ships.

Article 2(2) amends article 2 of the 1989 Order (which makes provision in relation to inquiries and investigations into hovercraft casualties) to substitute references to legislation which has been repealed with references to the corresponding extant provisions. For the purposes of the application of the Merchant Shipping (Formal Investigations) Rules 1985 to hovercraft subject to modifications, article 2(6) retains Part C of Schedule 1 to the 1989 Order subject only to substituting the original provision with an updated version.

Article 2(3) amends article 3 of the 1989 Order (which makes provision in relation to prevention of pollution by hovercraft) to substitute references to legislation which has been repealed with references to the corresponding extant provisions.

Article 2(4) amends article 4 of the 1989 Order (which makes provision in relation to the safety of hovercraft) to replace references to sections of the Merchant Shipping Act 1979 with references to those sections of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 (“the 1995 Act”) which superseded them.

Article 2(5) inserts new articles 6 and 7 into the 1989 Order.

The effect of new article 6 is to apply the powers in section 302 of the 1995 Act to hovercraft. This will enable fees to be prescribed in respect of a range of actions which may be taken in relation to hovercraft and to persons connected with hovercraft.

The effect of new article 7 is to apply the powers in section 306A of the 1995 Act to hovercraft. This will ensure that, where secondary legislation applies, by virtue of the 1989 Order, in relation to hovercraft and to persons connected with hovercraft and contains references to international conventions or treaties that are ambulatory references by virtue of section 306A, those references are ambulatory not only for the purposes of the application of that secondary legislation to ships and to persons connected with ships but also for the purposes of its application to hovercraft and to persons connected with hovercraft.

Article 2(7) omits Parts A and B of Schedule 1, and Schedule 2, to the 1989 Order.

A full impact assessment has not been prepared for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

Footnotes

1
1968 c. 59. Section 1(1)(h) was amended by the Supreme Court Act 1981 (c. 54), Schedule 5, and the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), Schedule 11, Part 1, paragraph 1(2). There are other amendments to the Act but none is relevant.
2
S.I. 1989/1350, amended by S.I. 1990/2594 and 2022/844. There are other amendments not relevant to this Order.
3
S.I. 1985/1001, amended by S.I. 1990/123, 1997/2971, 2000/1623 and 2006/680. Rule 17(1) was amended by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), Schedule 4, paragraph 184 and Schedule 18, Part 3.
4
1995 c. 21. Section 269 was amended by the Deregulation Act 2015 (c. 20), section 55.
5
S.I. 2012/1743, amended by S.I. 2013/2882 and 2018/1400.
6
1971 c. 60. Sections 2(2A) and (2B), 20 and 24 were repealed by the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, Schedule 12. Section 2(4) was amended by S.I. 2015/664. Sections 5 and 7 were repealed by the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, Schedule 12 except in their application to section 2(1) and (3) of the Prevention of Oil Pollution Act 1971. Section 11 was amended by the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, Schedule 12, and the Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48), sections 37 and 46. Section 11A was inserted by the Environment Act 1995 (c. 25), Schedule 22, paragraph 15 and amended by the Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 (c. 24), Schedule 2, paragraph 1 and Schedule 3 and the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (asp 3), Schedule 3, paragraph 2. Section 23 was amended by the Petroleum Act 1998 (c. 17), Schedule 4, paragraph 4. Section 30 was amended by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 (c. 36), Part 1 of Schedule 6, the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (c. 43), Schedule 14, paragraph 7 and the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, Schedule 12.
7
S.I. 1987/470, amended by S.I. 1990/2595, 1997/2569, 1998/254 and 2015/664.
8
S.I. 1990/2595.
9
S.I. 1998/1500.
10
S.I. 2003/1809, amended by S.I. 2009/1176, 2016/1211, 2018/68 and 2018/1221.
11
S.I. 2006/1248.
12
S.I. 2006/2950, amended by S.I. 2015/664.
13
S.I. 2008/2924, amended by S.I. 2010/895, 2010/3035, 2011/3056, 2014/3076, 2014/3306, 2016/1025, 2019/311, 2019/940, 2021/1108 and 2023/384.
14
S.I. 2018/68, amended by S.I. 2018/1104, 2019/42, 2020/496, 2021/818 and 2022/1342.
15
S.I. 2019/42, amended by S.I. 2021/818, 2022/1219, 2022/1234, 2024/636 and 2024/1296.
16
S.I. 2020/620, amended by S.I. 2022/1234.
17
S.I. 2020/621, amended by S.I. 2024/570.
18
S.I. 2024/636.