UK Offence Report

The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (England) Regulations 2017

UK Statutory Instrument 2017 No. 1312 — creates 3 criminal offences.

3offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
19 December 2017
In force from
Not determined
Extent
Not stated
Subject
International sanctions, export control and trade restrictions
Made under
Gazette as required by section 140(6)(b) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008

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 prohibit the use of microbeads as an ingredient in the manufacture of rinse-off personal care products and the sale of any such products containing microbeads (regulation 3). Breach of these prohibitions is an offence (regulation 3). (Definitions of “microbead” and “rinse-off personal care product” are contained in regulation 2.) The prohibition on the manufacture of such products comes into force 21 days after these Regulations are made and the prohibition on the sale of any such products comes into force 6 months after the day on which these Regulations are made. A civil sanctions regime is also introduced to enable the regulator to impose a range of civil sanctions (regulation 7 and the Schedule). These are variable monetary penalties, compliance notices, stop notices and enforcement undertakings. The Regulations make provision for the procedure relating to these sanctions and the available appeal mechanisms. Failure to comply with a stop notice is an offence (paragraph 16 of the Schedule). All appeals relating to a civil sanction are to the First-tier Tribunal. Regulation 8 gives enforcement officers powers of entry to carry out the necessary investigations in order to determine whether an offence under regulation 3 has been committed. Regulation 9 provides for publication of information on enforcement action taken by the regulator, and regulations 10 and 11 provide that guidance relating to the use of civil sanctions must be prepared and consulted on and specify information to be included in such guidance. Regulation 12 contains provision for review of the Regulations. Regulators are able to recover the costs of enforcement (paragraph 27 of the Schedule) in the case of variable monetary penalties, compliance notices and stop notices. These Regulations were notified in draft to the European Commission in accordance with Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and of rules on Information Society services (OJ No. L 241, 17.9.2015, p. 1). A full impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sectors is available from the Marine Litter Team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, and is also available together with these Regulations at www.legislation.gov.uk.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Contributions, debates and written statements mentioning this instrument by name. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service has no record of this instrument, although it covers the period. Nothing is inferred from that.

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