10 Any person who intentionally obstructs an inspector or authorised person in the exercise of his powers…

regulation 12(10) of The Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 1994

• Revoked
• Requires proof of a state of mind
• Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

10 Any person who intentionally obstructs an inspector or authorised person in the exercise of his powers under regulation

9 of these Regulations or

a customs officer in the exercise of his powers under regulation

10 of these Regulations commits an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

obstructing an official exercising a power

Fault element

Requires proof of a state of mind

Burden of proof

No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: intentionally.

What would breach regulation 12(10)?

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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 1994.
2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Not determined

Maximum fine

Not determined

Maximum prison (summary)

Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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.

• Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales

  How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.

• Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014

  Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.

• Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016

  Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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 Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007

Revoked on

12 July 2007

Made

22 April 1994

In force from

6 May 1994

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 make provision in relation to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 259/93 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community and for the purpose of implementing Council Directive 75/442/EEC (as amended) (“the Waste Framework Directive”) in respect of imports and exports of waste. The Council Regulation provides for a system of prior notification and authorization where a person intends to ship waste within, into or out of the Community. The Council Regulation requires member States to deal with a number of matters by means of their domestic legislation in relation to the operation of the new system. These Regulations deal with those matters in the United Kingdom; in particular— a designate the authorities which are to be the competent authorities and the correspondent in the United Kingdom under the new system (regulations 3, 4 and 5); b enable a competent authority of dispatch to require notifications of shipments of waste from their area to be routed through the authority rather than being sent to competent authorities by the notifier (regulation 6); c require a certificate relating to financial guarantees and insurance to be obtained prior to shipments of waste entering or leaving the United Kingdom (regulation 7); d confer powers on competent authorities to ensure that waste is returned to the United Kingdom or is recovered or disposed of where the authority is under an obligation to secure the return, recovery or disposal of the waste in accordance with the Council Regulation (regulations 8 and 9); e confer powers on customs officers to detain shipments of waste to facilitate the exercise by the competent authorities of their functions under the Council Regulation (regulation 10); f provide for the preparation of a waste management plan by the Secretary of State in accordance with the Waste Framework Directive and require competent authorities of dispatch and destination to object to shipments ofwaste in accordance with the plan (regulation 11); g set out offences and penalties in relation to non-compliance with the Council Regulation or United Kingdom Regulations (regulations 12 to 15); h confer power on the Secretary of State to require competent authorities to provide information to enable him to fulfil his functions under the Council Regulation (regulation 16); i set out how certain notices given under the United Kingdom Regulations may be served (regulation 17); j amend the Control of Pollution (Special Waste) Regulations 1980 and the Pollution Control (Special Waste) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1981 to avoid an overlap between the control system under those Regulations and the new system under the Council Regulation (regulation 18); k amend the Controlled Waste (Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles) Regulations 1991 and the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 to make the offences under regulation 12 prescribed offences under the 1991 Regulations and relevant offences under the 1994 Regulations (regulation 19); l provide a transitional registration system for dealers and brokers to enable them to act as notifiers under the Council Regulation (regulation 20); m revoke certain provisions which will be superseded on the coming into force of the new system (regulation 21).

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.

• Environment Bill Hl Lords · 14 February 1995 · Viscount Ullswater

  This group of amendments seeks to make various changes to the waste regulation functions of the agencies. Amendment No. 345 moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, seeks to make provision for appeals against decisions taken by competent authorities carrying out their duties under the EC Waste Shipments Regulation. In Great Britain those competent authorities are either the waste regulation authorities or the…

• Environment Bill Hl Lords · 14 February 1995

  The regulation is implemented in the UK by the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 1994. The regulations make no allowance for an appeal against any decisions. The purpose of the amendment is to alter that position. I beg to move.

• WEEE Directive Commons · 10 July 2007 · Lorely Burt

  The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point, which ties in nicely with my next one. The whole point of article 8.2 of the WEEE directive was to ensure that manufacturers would build recyclability into their goods. However, a joint statement by a group of companies and non-governmental organisations on producer responsibility for waste electrical and electronic equipment stated that Britain and 10 other EU member…

Other offences in the same instrument

• Any person who contravenes a provision of the principal Regulation in the United Kingdom so that waste is…regulation 12(1)
• Any person who transports, recovers, disposes of, or otherwise handles waste in the United Kingdom in…regulation 12(2)
• Any consignee who, in relation to waste shipped to the United Kingdom, fails to send a certificate of…regulation 12(3)
• Any person who contravenes regulation 7 of these Regulations commits an offenceregulation 12(4)
• Any person who supplies information which is false in a material particular to a competent authority in the…regulation 12(5)
• Any person who, in the United Kingdom, mixes wastes which are the subject of different notifications during…regulation 12(6)
• Any notifier who ships waste from the United Kingdom without having entered into a contract with the…regulation 12(7)
• Any notifier who ships waste from the United Kingdom which is required to be accompanied by the information…regulation 12(8)
• Any person who fails to comply with a notice served on him under regulation 8(2) or 9(2) of these…regulation 12(9)

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 “commits 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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• The Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 1994 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheriesOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 1994