UK Offence Report

Criminal offences

regulation 12(2) of The Control of Pollution (Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil) Regulations 1991

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 A person who contravenes regulation

11 above shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

2 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 12(2)?

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 11 above.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Control of Pollution (Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil) Regulations 1991, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£100
Standard scale
Level 2
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 2 value when the instrument came into force (1991-09-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £500.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Water Resources (Control of Pollution) (Silage, Slurry and Agriculture Fuel Oil) (Wales) Regulations 2010 (revoked)
Revoked on
18 June 2010
Made
22 February 1991
In force from
1 September 1991
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations require persons with custody or control of a crop being made into silage, livestock slurry or certain fuel oil to carry out works and take precautions and other steps for preventing pollution of waters which are controlled waters for the purposes of Part III of the Water Act 1989. The Regulations provide exemptions from their requirements and for the loss of those exemptions in certain circumstances. They also confer a right of appeal to the Secretary of State and provide that contravention of certain regulations is a criminal offence. Copies of the documents published by the British Standards Institution referred to in the Regulations may be obtained from any of the sales outlets of the British Standards Institution or by post from the British Standards Institution, Linford Wood, Milton Keynes MK14 6LE (Telephone number: Milton Keynes (STD 0908) 220022).

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 0.92.

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