UK Offence Report

6 It is an offence to fail to comply with a notice served under this regulation.

regulation 19(6) of The Private Water Supplies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (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

6 It is an offence to fail to comply with

a notice served under this regulation.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 19(6)?

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 it is an offence to fail to comply with a notice served under this regulation.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Private Water Supplies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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
11 December 2009
In force from
18 January 2010
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 Council Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption (O.J. No. L330, 5.12.1998 p.32) in relation to private water supplies specified in regulation 3. Part 1 of the Regulations deals with water standards. Regulation 5 and Schedule 1 define wholesomeness. Regulation 7 places a duty on the Department of the Environment (“the Department”) to carry out a risk assessment of a private water supply, and Schedule 2 details the requirements of a risk assessment. Part 2 and Schedule 3 deal with monitoring private water supplies. Regulation 8 requires the Department to monitor private water supplies in accordance with that Part, and regulation 12 and Schedule 4 specify how samples must be taken and analysed. Regulation 13 and Schedule 5 require the Department to keep records. Under regulation 14 the Department shall publish information annually. Part 3 deals with what happens if the water supply is not wholesome or exceeds specified parameters. If the problem cannot be solved informally or through the granting of an authorisation, the Department shall serve a notice. Failure to comply with a notice served under regulation 19 is an offence, punishable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years. A regulatory impact assessment of the costs and benefits and the effect that this instrument will have on the business and voluntary sector is available from the Department of the Environment, Calvert House, 23 Castle Place, Belfast BT1 1FY.

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