UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992

the instrument as a whole of The Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992.

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
16 November 1992
In force from
31 May 1993
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 provide for the preparation of safety cases for offshore installations and for the notification of specified activities to the Health and Safety Executive (“the Executive”). A safety case is defined in the Regulations as a document containing specified information relating to the management of health and safety and the control of major accident hazards and containing the particulars specified in the Schedule referred to in the provision of the Regulations under which it is prepared (regulations 2(2) and 8). The Regulations— a require a safety case to be sent to the Executive before the completion of the design of a fixed installation (regulation 4(1) and Schedule 1); b prohibit the operation of a fixed installation unless a safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 4(2) and Schedule 2); c prohibit the movement of a mobile installation in relevant waters (as defined in regulation 2(1)) with a view to its being operated there unless a safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 5 and Schedule 3); d prohibit the engagement of an installation in a combined operation with another unless a safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 6 and Schedule 4); e prohibit the decommissioning of a fixed installation unless a safety case has been sent to and accepted by the Executive (regulation 7 and Schedule 5) ; f require a safety case to be revised as often as may be appropriate and at 3 yearly intervals, such revision to be accepted by the Executive where it is made at the 3 yearly interval or where it renders the safety case materially different from the last version sent to the Executive (regulation 9); g require any procedures or arrangements in safety cases to be followed and provide for specified defences for contravention of the requirement (regulation 10); h require well operations and specified construction activities to be notified to the Executive, such notifications to contain specified particulars (regulations 11 and 12 and Schedules 6 and 7); i contain transitional provisions in respect of activities in existence or com menced within a specified time of the coming into force of the Regulations (regulation 13); j impose requirements on specified persons to co-operate with the operator and owner of an offshore installation to enable them to comply with the provisions of the Regulations (regulation 14); k impose requirements with respect to the making and keeping of documents (regulation 15); l amend the Offshore Installations (Safety Representatives and Safety Commit tees) Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/971) as respects a safety representative’s entitlement to see and be supplied with documents and information, and amend those Regulations so as to require safety representatives to be consulted on the preparation of safety cases (regulation 16 and Schedule 8); m provide for the granting of exemptions from the Regulations by the Executive (regulation 17).

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 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 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