UK Offence Report

Enforcement notice to have effect against subsequent development

paragraph 89(4) of SCHEDULE 4 of The Town and Country Planning (Hazardous Substances) (Scotland) Regulations 1993

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

4 A person who, without the grant of hazardous substances consent in that behalf, in responsible for the presence of

a hazardous substance on land in contravention of the requirements of

a hazardous substances contravention notice as described in subsection (2) or (3) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 paragraph 89(4) of SCHEDULE 4?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Town and Country Planning (Hazardous Substances) (Scotland) Regulations 1993, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. 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
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1993-05-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
18 February 1993
In force from
1 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 are made principally under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972 (“the Act”), as amended by the Housing and Planning Act 1986, the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Planning and Compensation Act 1991, and come into force on 1st May 1993. The Act provides that the presence at or above the controlled quantity of a hazardous substance on, over or under land requires hazardous substances consent. These Regulations set out— 1 the list of substances which are hazardous substances for the purposes of the Act and the controlled quantities of those substances (regulation 3 and Schedule 1); 2 prescribed forms, notices and certificates (Schedule 2); 3 exemptions from the need for hazardous substances consent (regulation 4); 4 the procedure for an application for hazardous substances consent (regulations 5 to 14); 5 the procedure for a claim for deemed hazardous substances consent and the conditions which will apply to such consent in addition to those set out in the Act (regulations 15 to 17 and Schedule 3); 6 the procedure for enforcement of hazardous substances control (regulations 18 to 23); 7 the enforcement provisions of the Act, as modified by these Regulations (Schedule 4); 8 the form of the Consents Register required under the Act (regulation 24); 9 the fee payable with an application for hazardous substances consent (regulations 25 and 26); 10 the procedure for applications by a planning authority (regulation 27).

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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