UK Offence Report

Saving for regulation 78 of the 1989 Regulations (over-riding weight restrictions)

regulation 5 of Motor Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

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

5 Nothing in these Regulations shall prejudice or affect regulation

78 of the 1989 Regulations and

a person using or permitting

a vehicle to be used contrary to the provisions of that regulation commits an offence even if the weights authorised by these Regulations are not exceeded.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 5?

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 Motor Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
8 June 1999
In force from
20 July 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 make new provision for the weights of wheeled motor vehicles and trailers which fall within category M2, M3, N2, N3, O3 or O4 of the vehicle categories defined in Annex II of Council Directive 70/156/EEC as amended. They do not apply to vehicle combinations that meet the requirements for combined transport in Schedule 9A to the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989. Regulation 4 introduces the three Schedules, which respectively lay down maximum authorised weights for individual vehicles (Schedule 1), for vehicle combinations (Schedule 2) and for axle weights (Schedule 3), and prohibits the use of a vehicle on a road if any of these weights are exceeded. A vehicle which complies with the provisions of regulations 73 to 77 of the 1989 Regulations is taken to comply with these Regulations (regulation 4(2)). The new weight limits are, in accordance with regulation 5, also subject to the overriding limit in regulation 78 of the 1989 Regulations, to which amendments are made by the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment No. 5) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999. These Regulations have been notified to the European Commission pursuant to European Parliament and Council Directive 98/34/EC of 22nd June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (O.J. No. L204, 21.7.98, p. 37). Copies of Directives may be obtained from The Stationery Office Bookshop, 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 “commits 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