UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

paragraph 1(1) of SCHEDULE 3 of The Energy Efficiency (Refrigerators and Freezers) Regulations 1997

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 It shall be an offence to contravene any of the following provisions of these Regulations— regulation 4(1) (suppliers' duties in respect of appliances); regulation 4(5)(b) (suppliers' duty in respect of documents etc. accompanying appliances); regulation 5(1) (duty to draw up the EC declaration of conformity); regulation 5(2) (prohibition of false declaration of conformity); regulation 5(3) (duty to keep declaration of conformity with technical documentation); regulation 6(1) (duty to establish technical documentation); regulation 6(4) (duty to keep technical documentation etc. available for inspection); regulation 6(5) (duty to furnish technical documentation etc. on request by enforcement authority); regulation 7(a) (prohibition on affixing EC mark to non-complying appliance); regulation 7(b) (prohibition on affixing misleading marking to appliance); regulation 7(c) (prohibition on affixing to appliance any object etc. which reduces the visibility or legibility of the EC mark); paragraph 5(1)(a) of this Schedule (prohibition of obstruction of authorised officer); paragraph 5(1)(b) of this Schedule (prohibition of failure to comply with proper requirement of authorised officer); paragraph 5(1)(c) of this Schedule (prohibition of failure without reasonable cause to give assistance or information to authorised officer); paragraph 5(2)(a) of this Schedule (prohibition on knowingly making false statement to authorised officer); paragraph 5(2)(b) of this Schedule (prohibition on recklessly making false statement to authorised officer); paragraph 11(8) of this Schedule (prohibition of purported search and seizure by unauthorised person); paragraph 15(1) of this Schedule (restrictions on disclosure of information).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Legal burden on the defendant

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

The provision gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, recklessly.

The defence, as drafted

tions it shall be a defence for that person to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. 3 Where in any proceedings (which in Scotland include the trial diet) against any person for such an offence the defence provided for by sub-paragraph (2) involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due— a to

What would breach paragraph 1(1) of SCHEDULE 3?

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 Energy Efficiency (Refrigerators and Freezers) Regulations 1997.
  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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown 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 (1999-09-03); 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Enterprise Act 2002 (Consequential and Supplemental Provisions) Order 2003
Revoked on
20 June 2003
Made
2 August 1997
In force from
3 September 1999
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 implement European Parliament and Council Directive 96/57/EC on energy efficiency requirements for the household electric refrigerators, freezers and their combinations defined in regulation 3. The Directive specifies minimum standards of energy efficiency (in terms of electricity consumption) which are to be met by such appliances which are placed on the Community market. Regulation 4 prohibits the placing on the Community market of new appliances which exceed the maximum allowable electricity consumption values laid down in Schedule 1; and makes provision for the affixing of the EC mark illustrated in Schedule 2. Regulation 5 lays down the rules relating to the compulsory EC declaration of conformity of an appliance. Regulation 6 requires suppliers to establish and maintain technical documentation to enable assessment of whether the EC mark has been properly affixed to an appliance. Regulation 7 prohibits the affixing to an appliance of misleading markings. Under regulation 8, manufacturers are obliged to bring non-conforming appliances on the market into conformity and to withdraw them from the market as soon as practicable. Regulation 9 obliges manufacturers to take all necessary steps to achieve a manufacturing process which ensures that appliances comply with their technical documentation and with the requirements of the Regulations. Regulation 10 and Schedule 3 create criminal offences and contain other provisions on enforcement. A Compliance Cost Assessment, estimating the financial impact of the Regulations on suppliers, dealers and wholesalers of household refrigerators etc. covered by the scheme, can be obtained from: Energy, Environment and Waste Directorate, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 3DE.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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