UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 7(1) of The Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (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 Any person who contravenes regulations 4(1) or 5, or causes or permits another person to do so, is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 7(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes regulations 4(1) or 5, or causes or permits another person to do so.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels (Scotland) Regulations 2007, 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
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
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
30 January 2007
In force from
12 March 2007
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 extend to Scotland only. They implement in relation to Scotland those matters concerning heavy fuel oil and gas oil (except marine fuels) contained in Council Directive 1999/32/EC (O.J. No. L 121, 11.5.99, p.13 as amended by Regulation (EC) No. 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No. L 284, 31.10.03, p.1)) relating to a reduction in the sulphur content of certain liquid fuels and amending Directive 93/12/EEC as amended by Directive 2005/33/EC (O.J. No. L 191, 22.7.05, p.59) of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the sulphur content of marine fuels. Directive 1999/32/EC was transposed in relation to Scotland by the Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (S.S.I. 2000/169) (“the 2000 Regulations”). These Regulations implement that Directive as so amended except in respect of marine fuels. The Regulations– a do not apply to research and testing and certain processing operations (regulation 3); b prohibit the use of heavy fuel oil which has a sulphur content that exceeds 1 per cent by mass except where conditions limiting emissions imposed under a permit issued by SEPA are complied with (regulation 4); c prohibit the use of gas oil– i with a sulphur content exceeding 0.2 per cent by mass until 31st December 2007; and ii with a sulphur content exceeding 0.1 per cent by mass on and from 1st January 2008 (regulation 5); d require the Scottish Ministers to take all necessary measures to ensure that sampling of heavy fuel oil and gas oil to check compliance with regulations 4(1) and (5) is carried out (regulation 6); e make it an offence to contravene the restrictions on the use of heavy fuel oil and gas oil and impose criminal penalties (regulation 7); f revoke the 2000 Regulations with a saving in respect of emission permits granted or applied for under those Regulations (regulation 8); g provide for SEPA to grant emission permits and for such permits to be transferred and surrendered (Schedule 1); and h set out technical requirements for the analysis of samples taken under regulation 6 (Schedule 2). Copies of the British Standards publications referred to in these Regulations may be obtained from any of the outlets operated by the British Standards Institution, or by post from the British Standards Institution at Standards House, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL. The Integrated Customs Tariff of the United Kingdom, which sets out the CN codes used in the definitions of “gas oil” and “heavy fuel oil”, are published by HMSO and available from HMSO Bookshops. The 2006 Annual Book of ASTM Standards is available from the American Society for Testing and Materials, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, West Conshohocken, PA 19428, USA.

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