UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Noise at Work Regulations 1989

the instrument as a whole of The Noise at Work Regulations 1989

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 Noise at Work Regulations 1989.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
2 October 1989
In force from
1 January 1990
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 give effect as respects Great Britain to provisions of Council Directive 86/188/EEC (OJ No. L137, 24.5.86, p.28) on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to noise at work. The Regulations– a impose requirements on employers with respect to the making and review of noise assessments (regulation 4); b impose requirements on employers with respect to the keeping of records of noise assessments and reviews thereof (regulation 5); c impose requirements on employers with respect to the reduction of risk of damage to the hearing of their employees from exposure to noise (regulation 6); d impose requirements on employers with respect to the reduction of exposure to noise of their employees (regulation 7); e impose requirements on employers with respect to the provision to their employees of personal ear protectors (regulation 8); f impose requirements on employers with respect to the marking of, and entry of their employees into, ear protection zones (regulation 9); g impose requirements on employers and employees with respect to the use and maintenance of equipment provided by employers pursuant to the provisions of the Regulations (regulation 10); h impose requirements on employers with respect to the provision of information, instruction and training to such of their employees as are likely to be exposed to specified noise levels (regulation 11); i modify section 6(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (c. 37) (general duties of designers, etc., of articles for use at work and articles of fairground equipment) so that any duty imposed by that subsection includes in specified circumstances a duty to provide certain information relating to noise generation (regulation 12); j provide for the issue of certificates of exemption by the Health and Safety Executive and the Secretary of State for Defence (regulations 13 and 14 respectively); and k revoke regulation 44 of the Woodworking Machines Regulations 1974 (S.I. 1974/903) (regulation 15). The duties imposed by the Regulations do not (in the circumstances specified in regulation 3(a)) extend to the masters and crews of sea-going ships or to their employers; nor do they (in the circumstances specified in regulation 3(b)) extend to the crews of aircraft and hovercraft or to other persons on board such craft.

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 0.63.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.63 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