Offences of contaminating, wasting and misusing water, etc.

article 40A(1) of Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1973 (REPEALED)

• In force
• Mixed — some elements strict, some not
• Either way
• Energy, communications, water and utilities

The instrument creating this offence has not been revoked so far as the data shows.

What the provision says

1 If any person who is the owner or occupier of any premises to which

a supply of water is provided by the Department intentionally or negligently causes or suffers any water fittings for which he is responsible to be or remain so out of order, so in need of repair or so constructed or adapted, or to be so used—

a that water in

a main or other pipe of the Department or in

a pipe connected with such

a main or pipe is or is likely to be contaminated by the return of any substance from those premises to that main or pipe;

b that water that has been supplied by the Department to those premises is or is likely to be contaminated before it is used; or

c that water so supplied is or is likely to be wasted or, having regard to the purposes for which it is supplied, misused, that person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds

a person

Conduct

breaching the provision

Fault element

Mixed — some elements strict, some not

Burden of proof

No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies (intentionally) - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: both a mens rea word and an objective standard appear in the offence itself.

What would breach article 40A(1)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1973.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court

Maximum fine

£1,000

Standard scale

Level 3

Maximum prison (summary)

Not determined

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

• Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014

  Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.

• Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016

  Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.

• Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status

In force

Made

19 January 1973

In force from

Not determined

Extent

N.I.

How this was established: read from the revised (currently in force) text.

Other offences in the same instrument

• Applications for water or sewerage servicesarticle 17(6)
• Right to discharge into sewers and sewage treatment worksarticle 20(2)
• Information relating to new discharges of trade effluentsarticle 26A(2)
• Pollution of water belonging to the Ministryarticle 34(1)
• Certain matter not to be passed into sewerage systemarticle 39(3)
• Regulations for preserving water qualityarticle 3B(2)(e)
• Supplementary provisionsarticle 3F(2)
• Any person who uses any water supplied to any premises by the Department for a purpose other than one for…article 40A(2)
• Alteration of or interference with Ministry's worksarticle 41(1)
• Supply of water fittingsarticle 44(4)
• Supply of water fittingsarticle 44(4)(a)
• Obstructionarticle 45

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis

the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting

Confidence

0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1973 (REPEALED) Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Energy, communications, water and utilitiesOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 1973