UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Genetic Manipulation Regulations 1989

the instrument as a whole of The Genetic Manipulation 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
importing or exporting without authority
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. Moving the goods across the border under the Genetic Manipulation Regulations 1989 without the licence the instrument requires.
  2. Holding a licence for one consignment and using it for another.
  3. Sending goods in transit through the United Kingdom, where the provision catches transit as well as import and export.

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
3 October 1989
In force from
1 November 1989
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 supersede the Health and Safety (Genetic Manipulation) Regulations 1978 which they revoke. The terms used in the Regulations including “genetic manipulation”, “activities involving genetic manipulation” and “intentional introduction into the environment” are defined in regulation 2. By regulations 3 and 4 the meaning of the word “work” for the purposes of these Regulations and Part I of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is extended to include an activity involving genetic manipulation and, in relation to such activities, section 3(2) of that Act (general duties of employers and self-employed persons to persons other than their employees) is modified to have effect as if the reference in that subsection to a self-employed person includes a reference to any person who is not an employer or an employee. By regulation 5 no person may undertake an activity involving genetic manipulation unless he has notified the Health and Safety Executive of his intention to do so at least 30 days in advance, or in the case of an intentional introduction into the environment, at least 90 days in advance. The details that are required to be notified are specified in Schedules 2 and 3. Regulation 5 also provides for a simplified notification procedure for activities which are assessed to create a low risk (regulation 5(4) and (5) and Schedule 4) and provide exemption for certain other activities (regulation 5(6)). By regulation 6, for the purpose of making a notification of an activity involving genetic manipulation, the person carrying out the activity is required to make a risk assessment of that activity by a method that has been approved by the Health and Safety Executive. The regulation also requires him to establish a committee for the purpose of advising him in relation to the assessment. These Regulations are applied to certain activities outside Great Britain (regulation 7) and provide for exemptions to be granted by the Health and Safety Executive (regulation 8). In addition to revoking the Health and Safety (Genetic Manipulation) Regulations 1978, regulation 9 provides that after their revocation notifications which had been made under them shall have effect for the purposes of regulation 5(1) (although notifications of individual activities will still have to be made if they commence on or after the coming into force of these Regulations). Copies of the method approved by the Health and Safety Executive for the risk assessment of activities involving genetic manipulation are obtainable from the Health and Safety Executive, Baynards House, 1 Chepstow Place, London W2 4TF.

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 0.59.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.59 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