Keeping the seas safe and retaining the territory’s shipping credentials are among the goals of a bill the House of Assembly is considering this week, leaders said.
Kicking off an approximately three-hour public debate on Monday, Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley outlined the four main purposes of the Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill, 2025: to ensure compliance with international regulations, to strengthen law enforcement powers at sea, to expand eligibility for ship ownership, and to update the process for enacting maritime regulations in the Virgin Islands.
“These legislative reforms will not only ensure our compliance with international obligations but also reinforce our ability to effectively regulate, enforce and support the global maritime industry,” Mr. Wheatley said when calling for the bill to be read a second time during the Monday HOA meeting.
Among other provisions, the amendment seeks to comply with the International Maritime Organisation’s safety standards by enacting new Merchant Shipping (Safety of Life at Sea) Regulations.
After Mr. Wheatley (R-D7) read the objects and reasons for the proposed legislation, Deputy Premier Julian Fraser aired concerns with the regulatory powers it would allot to the governor.
“The first thing you would notice in it, it says the governor shall make regulations. … I think that we need to be careful,” said Mr. Fraser (R-D3). “And every member of this House has a responsibility to ensure that we don’t lose a single inch — not an inch of what we have.”
Debate
Following Mr. Fraser, Opposition Leader Myron Walwyn spoke for nearly an hour, acknowledging the need for the bill but raising questions about the draft version of it.
One area of concern, he said, is Section 430 of the bill, which outlines maritime enforcement powers surrounding hot pursuits in VI waters; the “power to stop, board, divert and detain;” the “power to search and obtain information,” and others.
Mr. Walwyn called for a “code of practice” to be established before granting such powers, especially since the bill would allow for maritime seizures and arrests to be made without warrants.
“The powers of seizure and arrest are serious powers — particularly the powers of seizure, because you just can’t seize things like that without a warrant on land,” he said. “And so, Madam Speaker, there is nothing that gives directions; there’s no code of practice that goes along with this section. And that is where the dealbreaker is for me.”
Mr. Walwyn also took issue with a provision giving law enforcers powers “for the purpose of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting a general criminal offence.”
He argued that the phrasing of “general criminal offence” was too wide.
“Really what this is supposed to be doing is dealing with serious offences — drug trafficking, human trafficking, murder, rape — the most serious of offences,” he said. “And so, even though the term ‘general criminal offence’ still obtains in the Policing and Crime 2017 Act, I think that we can do a little better in terms of narrowing down on what sort of offences we really mean as opposed to having it simply be a general criminal offence.”
Constables
Mr. Walwyn also expressed concern with a provision empowering police constables to enforce maritime law.
“You’re going to drop these major powers to go in and detain and seize assets and do all kind of things that — you’re going to give that to a constable who [had] just come with the last shower of rain? To me that is not the wisest thing,” Mr. Walwyn said.
He added that powers given to police officers should also be extended to customs and immigration officers.
“Why are customs officers being excluded here?” he asked. “They should be included in the legislation for the avoidance of doubt. Even if the powers might exist elsewhere, for the purposes of this act, it must list the customs officers, and I would even go as far to say immigration officers as well, because they are all part of law enforcement.”
‘The tools they need’
Opposition members Mitch Turnbull (R-D2), Ronnie Skelton (R-at large) and Marlon Penn (R-D8) also contributed to the debate.
“I’m eager for us to really give the shipping registry and the maritime authority the tools that they need to go out and solicit the business that they need,” Mr. Penn said. “But I agree that we have to ensure that while we’re fulfilling international obligations, we’re not adversely affecting our local businesses, our local operations in the maritime space.”
Other speakers on the government side included Health and Social Development Minister Vincent Wheatley (R-D9), Junior Minister for Financial Services and Economic Development Lorna Smith (R-at large), and Karl Dawson (R-D1).
Ms. Smith stressed the “critical importance” of the bill, noting that the VI’s Category One status allows the territory to register large boats, such as mega yachts and cargo ships of any size.
In his closing statement, the premier echoed this line of argument.
“The changes we are making to the Merchant Shipping Act are key in being able to perform well in this audit so that we can retain our Category One status and to be able to register these big vessels, which is big business for the territory,” Mr. Wheatley said.
After the public portion of the debate on Monday, the HOA entered a closed-door committee session to discuss the bill in private. The session is scheduled to resume today.
British Caribbean News