(1)    This Order may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) (Rate of Interest) Order 1999 and shall come into force on 1st September 1999.

(2)    In this Order “the prescribed rate” means one per cent more than the base rate quoted from time to time by the Committee of London Clearing Bankers or, where there is for the time being more than one such rate, the lowest of them.

The Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) (Rate of Interest) Order 1998 is hereby revoked.

The rate of interest for the purposes of article 11(1) of the Convention of Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976 shall be:—

(a)    where the occurrence takes place before 1st September 1999 but the fund is constituted on or after that date:

(i)    12 per cent from the date of the occurrence until 31st December 1994,

(ii)    6.75 per cent on and after 1st January 1995 until 31st August 1998,

(iii)    8.5 per cent on and after 1st September 1998 until 31st August 1999, and

(iv)    the prescribed rate on and after 1st September 1999, or

(b)    where the occurrence takes place on or after 1st September 1999, the prescribed rate.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions

Glenda Jackson

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions

30th June 1999

We concur with the making of this Order,

Jim Dowd

Jane Kennedy

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury

6th July 1999

This Order revokes and replaces the Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) (Rate of Interest) Order 1998.

The Order provides that the rate of interest to be included in the limitation fund constituted by a person seeking to limit his liability by virtue of the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976 shall from 1st September 1999 be calculated by reference to a formula.