National minimum wage equivalence declarations Section 5: Offence of operating service inconsistently with declaration
Section 5 provides for offences where services are operated inconsistently with an equivalence declaration or where declarations are false or misleading insofar as they concern the operation of a service before the declaration was provided.
	Subsections (2)(a) and (3)(a) (read with subsection (1)) provide that the operator of a service commits an offence where it operates a service inconsistently with a declaration from the start of a relevant year or at the time a declaration is provided during a relevant year.
	Subsections (2)(b) and (3)(b) (read with subsection (1)) provide that the operator of a service commits an offence where it starts to operate a service inconsistently with a declaration at any later time during the relevant year (having previously operated the service consistently with the declaration), and fails to notify the harbour authority within four weeks of the fact that the service has started to be so operated and the time when it started to be so operated. Subsection (4) makes it an offence for an operator to provide a declaration which is false or misleading in so far as it concerns the operation of a service for a period in the past.
	A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine in England and Wales or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale in Scotland and Northern Ireland.