UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Landfill Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

regulation 2(2) of The Landfill (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

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 For regulation 17(1) (Offences) substitute— 17

1 It shall be an offence for an operator of

a landfill to contravene—

a regulation

9 as applied by paragraph 1(14) or 6(2) of Schedule 4;

b regulation

12 as applied by paragraph 3(3)(a) or 6(2) of Schedule 4;

c regulation

10 as applied by paragraph 3(3)(b) or 6(2) of Schedule 4;

d paragraph 3(5), 5(6) or 5(10)(b) of Schedule 4; or

e from 1st May 2007, paragraph 5(3) of Schedule 4.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 2(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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Landfill (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
20 March 2007
In force from
1 May 2007
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 (in part), Council Directive 75/442 EEC on Waste (“the Waste Framework Directive”) and Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste (“the Landfill Directive”). Regulation 2 amends the Landfill Regulations to create an offence if the operator of a landfill continuing to take agricultural waste and/or mines or quarries waste after 31 July 2006 contravenes the requirements to submit a conditioning plan for that site to the Department by 1 June 2007, to submit such reports in connection with the closure of the landfill as may be required by notice in writing, fails to comply with and observe such conditions as are specified in a notice served in relation to the closure of a landfill or does not comply with the obligations imposed on the operator of any landfill which is for the time being classified as a landfill for hazardous waste pending determination of an application made pursuant to Schedule 4 of those Regulations. The Regulatory Impact Assessment of these Regulations was included in that of the Waste Management Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, a copy of which has been placed in the library of the Northern Ireland Assembly and copies can be obtained from Environmental Policy Division, 20-24 Donegall Street, Belfast, BT1 2GP.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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