The Environmental Protection (Injurious Articles) (Fixed Penalty Notices and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025

Scottish Statutory Instrument 2025 No. 28 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created

0recorded in force

0revoked

Made: 5 February 2025
In force from: 31 March 2025
Extent: Not stated
Subject: Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries
Made under: Environmental Protection Act 1990

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations make provision for a fixed penalty notice procedure in relation to offences under the Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (Scotland) Regulations 2018 (“the 2018 Regulations”), the Environmental Protection (Cotton Buds) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 (“the 2019 Regulations”), the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“the 2021 Regulations”), and the Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (“the 2024 Regulations”). These Regulations also make amendments to the 2024 Regulations to provide for a later coming into force date, to clarify the circumstances in which an enforcement officer may take vapes or components of vapes into their possession, and to correct a minor typographical error. Part 2 of these Regulations provides for a fixed penalty notice procedure in relation to offences under regulation 3(1) or (2) of the 2018 Regulations. New regulation 7 of the 2018 Regulations inserted by regulation 3 outlines the circumstances in which an enforcement officer may give a fixed penalty notice to a person, the effect of either accepting or refusing the offer to pay the fixed penalty, the time period during which a fixed penalty notice may be given, and during which no other proceedings may be commenced in relation to an offence under regulation 3(1) or (2) of the 2018 Regulations. It additionally provides an enforcement officer with a power to require that a person to be issued with a fixed penalty notice give their name, address and date of birth, and a related offence for refusing to provide that information or giving false information. New regulation 8 of the 2018 Regulations sets out the particulars that must be included in a fixed penalty notice given under new regulation 7, and new regulation 9 provides for the amount of the fixed penalty and the discounted amount that applies when paid within the period identified. Parts 3 and 4 provide for similar amendments to the 2019 Regulations and the 2021 Regulations so as to provide for a fixed penalty notice procedure in respect of offences under regulation 3(1) or (2) of the 2019 Regulations and regulations 3(1), (2) or (3), 4(1) or 5(1) of the 2021 Regulations. Part 5 of these Regulations makes amendments to the 2024 Regulations. Regulation 7 amends the coming into force date of the 2024 Regulations from 1 April 2025 to 1 June 2025. Regulation 9 amends regulation 9(1)(e), (f) and (g) of the 2024 Regulations to clarify that an enforcement officer in exercise of their powers under regulation 9(1)(e), (f) or (g) may take into their possession any vape or component of a vape found in any premises the enforcement officer has the power to enter, which appears to that enforcement officer to be a single-use vape or component of a single-use vape. Regulation 7 additionally amends regulation 9(1)(g) to provide that an enforcement officer may retain single-use vapes in their possession for the purposes of compliance with a direction issued under new regulation 14. Regulation 10 inserts provision into the 2024 Regulations which provides for a fixed penalty notice procedure in relation to offences under regulation 4(1) of the 2024 Regulations in similar terms to the amendments made to the 2018 Regulations, the 2019 Regulations and the 2021 Regulations. New regulation 13 provides for the amount of the fixed penalty, the discounted amount that applies when paid within the period identified, and also for different fixed payment amounts and discounted amounts in circumstances where there has been prior enforcement action within the previous three years. New regulation 14 provides for the Scottish Ministers to give a direction that single-use vapes in respect of which an offence under regulation 4(1) has been committed are to be treated as waste and for the disposal or other treatment of those single-use vapes. A direction under new regulation 14 will apply to any single-use vapes in respect of which an offer of fixed penalty has been accepted, and the fixed penalty has been paid in accordance with new regulation 13.

Offences created by this instrument

Power to give a fixed penalty notice regulation 7(7) · Status not determined · Strict liability

What Parliament said about it

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