UK Offence Report

3 No act or omission of the Crown constitutes an offence under this section.

regulation 20B(3) of The Transport and Works (Scotland) Act 2007 (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017

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

3 No act or omission of the Crown constitutes an offence under this section.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach regulation 20B(3)?

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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Transport and Works (Scotland) Act 2007 (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£10,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
26 April 2017
In force from
16 May 2017
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 amend the Transport and Works (Scotland) Act 2007 (“the Act”). These Regulations implement, in relation to transport developments to which the Act applies, Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, as amended by Council Directive 2014/52/EU. The Regulations amend the Act to impose additional procedural requirements in relation to applications under section 4, or proposals under section 6, for an order under section 1 of the Act. Regulation 3 adds Historic Environment Scotland to the list of specified authorities in section 4(7). Regulation 4 amends section 11 to include a prohibition on making an order under section 1 of the Act unless an environmental impact assessment has been carried out in circumstances where such an assessment is required. Regulation 5 amends section 12 to set out additional information that must be included in the notices publicising the Scottish Ministers’ determination to make an order under section 1 where an environmental impact assessment is required for the transport development that is the subject of the determination. Regulation 6 inserts into the Act— a section 20A to make provision for the inclusion, where appropriate, in an order under section 1 of a requirement for measures to monitor any significant adverse effects on the environment to be carried out; b section 20B to make it an offence for any person to provide false information for the purpose of obtaining a decision in relation to the making or otherwise of an order under section 1; c section 20C applies section 20B to bodies corporate (including officers and members thereof), Scottish partnerships, and unincorporated associations other than Scottish partnerships. Regulation 7 contains transitional and savings provisions. A Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared and placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. Copies can be obtained from Transport Scotland, Buchanan House, 58 Port Dundas Road, Glasgow, G4 0HF.

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 0.75.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “constitutes an offence”
Confidence
0.75 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