UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Measuring Equipment (Liquid Fuel and Lubricants) Regulations 1995

the instrument as a whole of The Measuring Equipment (Liquid Fuel and Lubricants) Regulations 1995

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

84 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985. 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Measuring Equipment (Liquid Fuel and Lubricants) Regulations 1995.

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 84 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985.

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
1 April 1995
In force from
4 May 1995
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 replace with amendments the Measuring Equipment (Liquid Fuel and Lubricants) Regulations 1988 and take account of International Recommendation R117 “Measuring Systems for Liquids Other Than Water” issued by the International Organisation for Legal Metrology and available from the Organisation at 11 rue Turgot, Paris, 75009, France. The Regulations apply to equipment used for trade, for any purpose, to measure liquid fuel (other than liquefied petroleum gas) in a quantity of 100 litres (or, until 1st October 1995, 20 gallons) or less. However, they do not apply to measuring equipment for automatic measuring of constant nominal quantities. (See regulation 2). They make provision as to the principles of construction and marking of measuring equipment, inspection, testing, passing as fit for use for trade and stamping of such equipment (and obliteration of stamps on such equipment), and the prescribed limits of error. The Regulations prescribe this equipment for the purposes of section 11(1) of the Weights and Measures Act 1985 so that it is unlawful to use it for trade purposes unless it has been tested, passed as fit for such use and stamped by an inspector of weights and measures. The principal changes effected by the Regulations are— a Provision is made for liquid fuel measuring equipment to be tested with a liquid other than, but similar to, that which it is intended to deliver (regulation 10). b Provision is also made for testing and stamping to be carried out at the place of manufacture (regulation 12(1)(b)). c The prescribed limits of error in relation to passing as fit for use for trade are relaxed and provision is made for different limits of error to apply to liquid fuels having different dynamic viscosities (regulation 17(1)). d Provision is made for the acceptance of test results for measuring equipment imported from other member States of the European Union or contracting parties to the European Economic Area Agreement (regulation 18). e Provision is made for the inspector not to obliterate the stamp, in certain circumstances, when certain components of the measuring equipment or its ancillary equipment are removed or replaced (regulation 23(5)). f The provisions relating to the obliteration of stamps on measuring equipment having more than one stamp are clarified (regulation 24(1)(a)) and provision is made for the inspector to affix a notice indicating that part of the equipment is out of order (regulation 24(2)). Copies of EN 45001 (BS 7501) referred to in regulation 18(3) may be obtained from any of the sales outlets operated by the British Standards Institution (BSI) or by post from BSI at Linford Wood, Milton Keynes MK14 6LE.

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 0.55.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.55 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