UK Offence Report

5 Any person who contravenes regulation 4, or causes or permits another person to contravene that…

regulation 5 of The Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2004

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

5 Any person who contravenes regulation 4, or causes or permits another person to contravene that regulation, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 5?

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 regulation 4, or causes or permits another person to contravene that regulation.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2004, 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
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Scotland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (CP(S)A 1995 s.225(2)), 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
26 August 2004
In force from
Not determined
Extent
S

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, which extend to Scotland only, prohibit the use of lead shot for shooting with a shot gun on or over wetlands (regulation 4). Regulation 2 contains definitions of terms referred to in the Regulations. Regulation 3 defines “wetlands” by reference to Article 1(1) of the Ramsar Convention (the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat signed at Ramsar on 2nd February 1971), with further explanation of the terms “peatland” and “temporary” wetlands for the purposes of the Regulations. Article 1(1) states: For the purposes of this Convention wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres. . The Ramsar Convention provides a detailed “Classification System for Wetland Types” which provides further guidance as to what constitutes a wetland. A copy of the Convention and the Classification System is available at http://www.ramsar.org/key_conv_e.htm. Regulation 5 creates the offence of contravention, or causing or permitting the contravention of regulation 4. It makes that offence punishable summarily with a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale. Regulation 6 provides for offences which are committed by bodies corporate, partnerships and unincorporated associations and extends those offences to persons in control of such bodies in certain circumstances. Regulation 7 revokes the Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (Scotland) Regulations 2004, which these Regulations replace. A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in connection with these Regulations. A copy may be obtained from Wildlife and Habitats Division, the Scottish Executive, Victoria Quay, Leith, EH6 6QQ. Copies have also been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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