UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994

the instrument as a whole of The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999 (revoked)
Revoked on
25 March 1999
Made
12 December 1994
In force from
16 January 1995
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 re-enact, with minor modifications, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1988 (S. I.1988/1657) (“the 1988 Regulations”) as amended. The 1988 Regulations imposed duties on employers to protect employees and other persons who may be exposed to substances hazardous to health and also imposed certain duties on employees concerning their own protection from such exposure (regulations 1 to 17 and Schedules 1 to 8). The Regulations also prohibit the import into the United Kingdom of certain substances and articles from outside the European Economic Area referred to in the Agreement defined in regulation 2(1) thereof. The Regulations also— implement as regards Great Britain Council Directive 90/679/EEC (OJ No. L374, 31.12.90, p.1) on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work, by— applying the 1988 Regulations as re-enacted to biological agents, and supplementing those Regulations with a Schedule containing special provisions relating to such agents (Schedule 9); provide for the notification to the Executive and the appropriate Health Minister of the consignment, storage or use of listed biological agents in place of the provisions contained in the Health and Safety (Dangerous Pathogens) Regulations 1981 (S. I. 1981/1011) (“the 1981 Regulations”) concerning the notification of the keeping, handling or transport of listed pathogens (paragraphs 12, 13 and 14 of Schedule 9); revoke certain provisions of the Regulations mentioned in paragraphs (2) and (3) of regulation 18 and the Regulations mentioned in paragraph (4) of that regulation; and extend the meaning of “work” for the purposes of Part I of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 in relation to any activity involving the consignment, storage or use of listed biological agents and modify section 3(2) of the said Act in relation to such activity (regulations 19 and 20). British Standards referred to in Part II of Schedule 9 (relating to safety cabinets) are obtainable from (by personal callers only) the British Standards Institution, 2 Park Street, London W1A 2BS or (by post) from the British Standards Institution, Linford Wood, Milton Keynes, MK14 6LE.

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