UK Offence Report

Obtaining of information

regulation 16(2) of The Groundwater Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (revoked)

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

2 A person who fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with

a requirement to provide information imposed under paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable–

a on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum;

b on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

2 years, or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

2 A person who fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement to provide information imposed under paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable– a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprison

What would breach regulation 16(2)?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement to provide information imposed under paragraph (1).
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Groundwater Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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.

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
Status not determined
Made
18 November 1998
In force from
1 January 1999
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations.) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement the Groundwater Directive (Council Directive 80/68/EEC) for Northern Ireland. They supplement existing water pollution legislation. The Regulations require the Department of the Environment to use its new powers under the Regulations and its existing powers under the Water Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 to prevent the direct or indirect discharge of list I substances to groundwater and to control pollution resulting from the direct or indirect discharge of list II substances (regulations 4 to 14). The new powers are conferred by regulations 13 and 16 to 20 which introduce– a a new requirement for an authorisation for the disposal, or tipping for the purposes of disposal, of list I or II substances: b a new procedure for prohibiting or regulating by notice other activities in or on land which pose an indirect threat to groundwater from list I or II substances. There are exclusions from the Regulations in relation to radioactive substances, domestic effluent from isolated dwellings and discharges containing small quantities and concentrations of list I or II substances (regulation 3). There are also exceptions from the main controls (subject to certain safeguards) in relation to– a discharges to groundwater unsuitable for other uses, b water used for geothermal purposes or pumped out of mines, quarries or civil engineering works, and c artificial recharges of groundwater for management purposes (regulations 4(6) and 12). The Regulations apply certain modifications to section 8 of the Water Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 in connection with the new controls (regulations 15 and 16). Regulation 21 deals with information to be included on registers maintained under section 9(9) of the Water Act (Northern Ireland) 1972. Regulation 22 makes transitional provisions in relation to the new authorisation procedure. Regulation 23 makes provision for consultation with the competent authorities in the Republic of Ireland if the Department intends to grant an authorisation which might affect transfrontier groundwater. Regulation 24 revokes the Pollution of Groundwater by Dangerous Substances Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994. Copies of the Groundwater Directive may be obtained from the Stationery Office Ltd, 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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”
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