UK Offence Report

13 A person who contravenes regulations 4, 7, 8 or l1 or any condition of a licence issued by the Secretary…

regulation 13 of Explosives (Fireworks) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002

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

13 A person who contravenes regulations 4, 7,

8 or l1 or any condition of

a licence issued by the Secretary of State under regulation 4(1), shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 13?

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 contravenes regulations 4, 7, 8 or l1 or any condition of a licence issued by the Secretary of State under regulation 4(1).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Explosives (Fireworks) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
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.

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
11 April 2002
In force from
6 May 2002
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 repeal previous Regulations which are largely re-enacted and make provisions to prohibit the possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, handling or use of certain categories of fireworks except under licence, issued by the Secretary of State to whom application shall be made in writing. A licence fee will be payable (regulations 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10). Fireworks exempt from the general prohibition are described (regulation 9 and Schedule 1). The regulations now prohibit the possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, handling or use of all but one class of firework except under licence from the Secretary of State. The Regulations prohibit the possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, handling or use of fireworks of erratic flight, mini-rockets, bangers or certain air bombs but provide an exception for any person for use, in the course of a trade or business of his, for special effects purposes in the theatre, on film or on television (regulation 4 and 5). The Regulations also require specified fireworks and assemblies to be marked with the words “This device must not be sold to, or used by, a member of the general public”. Packets of sparklers must be marked with the words “Warning: not to be given to children under 5 years of age” (regulation 8). The Regulations provide a sliding scale of fees for the issue of fireworks licences (regulation 10 and Schedule 3). Copies of British Standard 7114, and the British Standards referred to in it, are available from any of the sales outlets operated by the British Standards Institution (BSI), by post from BSI at 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL or from any of the bookshops operated by the Stationery Office Limited.

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