UK Offence Report

Power to obtain information

regulation 19(2) of The Quality of Bathing Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

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 the requirements of

a notice served on him under paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

2 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 the requirements of a notice served on him under paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 19(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 the requirements of a notice served on him under paragraph (1).
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Quality of Bathing Water Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
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
28 May 2008
In force from
Not determined
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 provision for the purpose of implementing in Northern Ireland Directive 2006/7/EC (“the Bathing Water Directive”) of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the management of bathing water quality and repealing Directive 76/160/EEC. Regulations 3 and 4 make provision in relation to identifying bathing waters and the length of the bathing season. Regulations 5 and 6 set out general duties imposed on the Department in order to secure compliance with the Bathing Water Directive, including in relation to public participation. Regulation 7 requires the Department to establish a bathing water profile for every bathing water. Regulation 8 requires the Department to establish a suitable monitoring programme. Regulation 9 requires a bathing water operator to make certain information available in the vicinity of its bathing water. Regulation 10 requires the Department to make certain information available on its website and to the bathing water operator. Regulations 11 and 12 require the Department to assess the bathing water quality data gathered under its monitoring programme and to classify each bathing water either as “poor”, “sufficient”, “good” or “excellent”. Regulations 13 to 15 require the Department and bathing water operators to take certain management measures at bathing waters which are subject to pollution. Additional measures shall be taken where a bathing water is classified as “poor” or where a bathing water profile indicates there is short-term pollution. Regulations 16 to 19 contain general provisions in relation to enforcement. Regulation 20 places an obligation on the Department to co-operate with the competent authorities in the Republic of Ireland in relation to transboundary waters. Regulation 21 revokes legislation transposing Council Directive 76/160/EEC concerning the quality of bathing water (OJ L31, 5.2.1976, p.1) which is repealed by the Bathing Water Directive. A partial regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs to business and the voluntary sector is available from the Department of the Environment, 13th Floor, River House, 48 High Street, Belfast BT1 2AW.

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