Gestión de la producción

The c r it e r i a fo r holding a formal in ve s tig atio n o f which an average o f one or two are held per year are as seen before ’ but fo r reasons of s im p lic ity and c la r if ic a t io n the fo llo w in g s :-

a. I f , a fte r the prelim inary in q u iry , the cause o f the casualty ought to be more c le a rly determined;

b. i f there has been considerable loss o f l i f e ;

c . i f there is great public concern;

d. i f i t seems li k e l y th a t there are lessons to be learned from the casu alty; or

e. i f the Department of Transport considers th a t the Master, Mate or Engineer should have his c e r t i f i ­ cate of competency cancelled or suspended by the Court.

I t should be noted th a t ju ris d ic tio n fo r casualty inves­ tig a tio n s covers a ll U.K. ships or any ship w ithin the three miles t e r r i t o r i a l waters o f the U.K.. A provision s im ila r to the one in Canada.

The hearing rules are in the process of being, revised in order to conform to the new requirements of the two recent Acts. These rules have had re s tric te d c irc u la tio n and are s t i l l c o n fid e n tia l. One important change may be th a t formal in vestig atio n s may be lim ite d in scope, fo r instance, in the case o f c o llis io n , the Court could be asked to deal only with the question o f why the ship sank and not with the cause of the c o llis io n i t s e l f . Before the new Acts came in to e f f e c t , there was a requirement t h a t , besides the o ff ic e r whose c e r t if ic a t e may be in jeopardy, the owners and Masters should autom atically be made p a rtie s , but th is is no longer required under the new ru le s .

The o rig in a l decision as to who should be a party is s im ila r to the Canadian process in th a t the Secretary of State determines who w ill be the o rig in a l p arties and who w ill be served with the Notice o f In v e s tig a tio n . Subse­ quently, the Wreck Commissioner presiding over the in ve s tig atio n may agree to admit other p a rtie s , apparent­ ly the practice has been very fle x ib le allowing even n e x t-o f-k in representatives to be adm itted.

Sometimes, the Commissioner w ill suggest th a t a person hold a wajching b r ie f as an observer. I f during the course of the in ve s tig atio n i t appears th a t th is person's

in te re s ts may be in jeopardy, he w ill then be allowed to become a party or allowed simply to re p ly .

A permanent l i s t of assessors is c u rre n tly kept by the Home O ffice but th is w ill be tran sferred s h o rtly to the Lord Chancellor's O ffic e ; th is l i s t is prepared t o t a l l y independently from the Department and appointment to which is considered a high honour and there are s t r i c t c r it e r i a to be made in order to be placed on i t .

There may be up to four assessors appointed in a formal in v e s tig a tio n , but among these there w ill always be a peer to the party whose c e r t if ic a t e may be in jeopardy. Nor are prelim inary in q u iry reports introduced as part of the evidence although the declarations o f the witnesses are d is trib u te d to a ll p a rtie s in advance o f the formal in v e s tig a tio n .

Very often the in vestig ato rs who c arried out the p re lim i­ nary in q u iry w ill be ca lle d as witness to t e s t i f y about evidence they gathered and evidence they observed, but they w ill not be questioned about t h e ir conclusions. There i s , however, some argument to the e ffe c t th a t the in ve s tig ato r is an expert and could be asked his opinion. The Department does not t r y to prevent in vestig ato rs from being ca lle d as witnesses.

As fa r as the tremendous costs are involved, a number of persons have indicated th a t fundamental changes should be bought about. Some of them fe e l th a t the tru e purpose of safety may not be properly served by th is process and th a t even the l i a b i l i t y aspects may not be r e a lly u s e fu l, e s p e cia lly in view of the already described huge costs involved. For the la s t three years the questions of changing the system has been examined and i t may one day re s u lt in to a b e tte r system put in place.