UK Offence Report

1 Any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of…

regulation 8(1) of The Lawnmowers (Harmonization of Noise Emission Standards) Regulations 1992

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 Any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of regulation

4 shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding £1000.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

1 Any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of regulation 4 shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1000.

What would breach regulation 8(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 without reasonable excuse contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of regulation 4.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Lawnmowers (Harmonization of Noise Emission Standards) Regulations 1992, 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
£1,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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 Noise Emission in the Environment by Equipment for use Outdoors Regulations 2001
Revoked on
4 June 2001
Made
3 February 1992
In force from
1 March 1992
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 implement Council Directive 84/538/EEC (OJ No. L300 of 19th November 1984, pp. 171—178), as amended by Commission Directive 87/252/EEC (OJ No. L117 of 5th May 1987, pp. 22—27), adapting it to technical progress, and Council Directives 88/180/EEC (OJ No. L81 of 26th March 1988, pp. 69—70) and 88/181/EEC (OJ No. L81 of 26th March 1988, pp. 71—74) which extended the provisions of the 1984 Directive (as amended) to motorised cylinder mowers and provided for a maximum permissible sound pressure level in the case of certain lawnmowers with a cutting width exceeding 120cm (“wide lawnmowers”). The Regulations relate to the permissible sound power level and, in the case of “wide lawnmowers”, the permissible sound pressure level of motorised equipment for cutting grass areas used for recreational, decorative or similar purposes but excluding agricultural and forestry equipment and certain non-independent and multi-purpose devices. In particular, the Regulations: a revoke the Lawnmowers (Harmonization of Noise Emission Standards) Regulations 1986, the Lawnmowers (Harmonization of Noise Emission Standards) (Amendment) Regulations 1987 and the Lawnmowers (Harmonization of Noise Emission Standards) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1990 but provide that those Regulations shall continue to apply to lawnmowers supplied for the first time in the Community before the date on which these Regulations come into force. In addition these Regulations do not apply to lawnmowers supplied for use outside the Community. (Regulations 1 and 2) b prohibit the supply of lawnmowers (as defined in the Regulations) for the first time in the Community on or after the date on which the Regulations come into force, unless— i the sound power level and, in the case of a “wide lawnmower”, the sound pressure level does not exceed the permitted levels for that type of lawnmower; and ii it is accompanied by a certificate of conformity to be issued by the manufacturer, or importer domiciled in the Community, based on a laboratory test report to be issued by a listed laboratory (approved by the Secretary of State or his equivalent in another member State) and an EEC mark has been placed on it. (Regulations 3 and 4) c provide for the carrying out of tests and the subsequent issue by a listed laboratory of laboratory test reports in respect of the sound levels of lawnmowers, as measured in accordance with Schedule 3. (Regulation 5) d provide for the payment of a prescribed fee for a test report. (Regulations 5 and 6) e provide for checks of lawnmowers, from time to time, by the Secretary of State and also, in Northern Ireland, by the Department of Economic Development to ensure compliance with the requirements of Regulation 4. (Regulation 7) f provide that an offence is committed if any person, without reasonable excuse, contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements of Regulation 4 and extend those provisions to offences committed by a body corporate (including a partnership in Scotland). (Regulations 8 and 9) g provide a model certificate of conformity (Schedule 1), model forms of marks to be placed on lawnmowers (Schedule 2), the tests from the relevant Directives in accordance with which the sound levels of lawnmowers are to be measured (Schedule 3), a table of permissible sound power levels (Schedule 4), and a list of the information required to accompany an application to a listed laboratory for a test (Schedule 5).

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