UK Offence Report

1 It shall be an offence to fail to comply with regulations 6 or 7.

regulation 11(1) of The Phosphorus (Use in Agriculture) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 (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

1 It shall be an offence to fail to comply with regulations 6 or 7.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 do something the instrument requires
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 11(1)?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Phosphorus (Use in Agriculture) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

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
11 December 2014
In force from
1 January 2015
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 aim to reduce water pollution by limiting the amount of chemical phosphorus fertiliser applied to land. In regards to eutrophication, they supplement the measures in the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 which implement Article 5 of European Council Directive 91/676/EEC concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources. The Regulations also support the implementation of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy). Regulation 4 imposes obligations on the controller of a holding in complying with these Regulations to have regard to any guidance issued and to the Code of Good Agricultural Practice. Regulation 5 prescribes in what circumstance exemptions to the Regulations may be granted. Regulation 6 restricts the amount of chemical phosphorus fertiliser applied to land to crop requirement for phosphorus whilst taking into consideration the phosphorus already available from the soil and organic manures. These variables are to be calculated in accordance with the Schedules to these Regulations. Regulation 7 imposes an obligation on the controller of a holding to keep sufficient records for each calendar year to ascertain the identity of the controller, the size, location and cropping regime for fields of the holding to which chemical phosphorus fertiliser was applied, the results of soil phosphorus tests, the quantity and type of phosphorus fertiliser applied and the date of application and a statement of the foreseeable crop requirement for phosphorus. These records must be ready for inspection, held for 5 years, be accurate and not misleading. Regulation 8 prescribes monitoring and inspection functions under these Regulations. Regulation 9 prescribes how the Department of the Environment may serve a notice on a controller where the controller is in breach or likely to be in breach of the Regulations and the requirements to be met when the notice is served. Regulation 10 creates a right of appeal to the Appeals Commission against any notice issued under regulation 9. Regulations 11 and 12 set out the offences under these Regulations and their corresponding penalties. Copies of the Code of Good Agricultural Practice for the Prevention of Pollution of Water, Air and Soil, referred to in regulation 4, may be obtained from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s website:http://www.dardni.gov.uk Copies of the DEFRA Fertiliser Manual (RB209, 8th Edition) may be obtained from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website:http://www.defra.gov.uk Copies of Council Directive 91/676/EEC and of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council may be obtained from the website for European Union legislation:http://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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