98. (1) A relevant person shall not be required to be the holder of a MAC in respect of relevant works undertaken, or to be undertaken, in the maritime area for the purposes of protecting life or property in an emergency situation (including such works relating to sea defences).

(2) (a) Paragraph (b) applies where infrastructure in the maritime area—

(i) is or was lawfully in that area entirely or partly pursuant to a MAC, and

(ii) is, for whatever reason, damaged or destroyed.

(b) A person shall not be required to be the holder of a further MAC in order to undertake relevant works in relation to the infrastructure.

(3) Neither subsection (1) nor subsection (2) shall be construed to relieve a relevant person from applying for and obtaining any authorisations (whether the authorisation takes the form of a grant of a licence, consent, approval or any other authorisation) required under this Act or any other enactment in order to enable the person to undertake relevant works.

(4) Subject to subsections (5) to (7), the Minister may by regulations specify, for the purposes of this section, any of the following matters:

(a) the works to which this section applies;

(b) the person who may undertake relevant works or relevant works falling within a class of relevant works specified in the regulations;

(c) the consultation that must be carried out by a relevant person before undertaking the relevant works;

(d) the notifications that a relevant person must give upon his or her completion of the relevant works;

(e) the indemnifications that a relevant person must give the MARA or a CPA before undertaking relevant works;

(f) the procedures for obtaining a MAC in respect of the relevant works after the works have been carried out where, but for this section, those works would have required a MAC before being undertaken.

(5) The Minister shall, in making regulations under subsection (4), have regard to—

(a) the nature or gravity, or both, of emergency situations likely to arise in the maritime area and pose a threat to life or property, or both,

(b) the degree of urgency with which those emergency situations need to be dealt with and, concomitant to that, the need to avoid any unnecessary delay in dealing with those situations, and

(c) the expertise and experience required of persons to undertake works to promptly and effectively deal with those emergency situations.

(6) Regulations made under subsection (4) may be subject to conditions and be of general application or apply to such part of the maritime area as may be specified in the regulations.

(7) On and after the establishment day, the Minister shall not make regulations under subsection (4) except after consultation with the MARA.

(8) In this section—

“relevant person”, in relation to relevant works, means a person specified in regulations made under subsection (4)(b) who may undertake the works;

“relevant works” means the works specified in regulations made under subsection (4)(a) to which this section applies.