UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Diving at Work Regulations 1997

the instrument as a whole of The Diving at Work Regulations 1997

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 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Diving at Work Regulations 1997.

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
Status not determined
Made
24 November 1997
In force from
1 April 1998
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 impose requirements and prohibitions with respect to persons at work who “dive” as defined in regulation 2(2). The Regulations apply to a “diving project” as defined in regulation 2(1) subject to specified exceptions (Regulation 3). The Regulations— impose a duty on every person who is responsible for, has control over or is engaged in a diving project or whose acts or omissions could adversely affect the health and safety of persons engaged in a diving project to take reasonable measures to ensure compliance with the Regulations (regulation 4); require that there should be a single diving contractor for every diving project (regulation 5); require the diving contractor to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the diving project is planned, managed and conducted so as to protect health and safety (regulation 6(1)); require that before the commencement of any diving project the diving contractor ensures that a diving project plan is prepared and that before the commencement of any diving operation as defined in regulation 2(1) the diving contractor appoints a person to supervise that operation, makes a record of that appointment and provides the person appointed with a copy of the relevant part of the diving project plan and a written record of his appointment. (regulation 6(2)); require the diving contractor to ensure that there are sufficient, suitably competent people to carry out the diving project safely, that suitable and sufficient plant is available to carry out the diving project safely, that such plant is maintained, that any person taking part in the diving project complies with the relevant statutory provisions and observes the provisions of the diving project plan, and that a record of each diving operation is kept (regulation 6(3)); require each diving contractor to supply specified particulars to the Executive (regulation 7 and Schedule 1); require the diving project plan to be based on an assessment of risks and impose requirements with respect to the contents of the plan (regulation 8); require that one supervisor only is appointed to supervise a diving operation and require supervisors to be competent and, where appropriate, suitably qualified (regulation 9); specify the duties of the supervisor who is required to ensure that the diving operation is carried out without risk to health and safety and in accordance with any relevant statutory provisions and the diving project plan. The supervisor is required to ensure that persons taking part in the diving operation are aware of the relevant contents of the diving project plan and to make entries in the diving operation record. The supervisor is prohibited from diving during the diving operation which he is supervising except in specified circumstances (regulation 10); confer power upon the supervisor to give reasonable directions (regulation 11); impose requirements concerning approved qualifications, certificates of medical fitness to dive and daily diving records on divers who dive in diving projects. Specified classes of diver are excepted from specified requirements (regulation 12); prohibit any person from diving in a diving project unless he is competent or if he knows of anything which makes him unfit to dive and require every person engaged in a diving project to comply with directions given to him by a supervisor and with relevant instructions in the diving project plan (regulation 13); provide that the Executive may approve such diving qualifications as it considers suitable for ensuring the adequate competence of divers. Any such approval may be subject to limitations or conditions (regulation 14); contain requirements with respect to certificates of medical fitness to dive including provisions for appeal to the Executive against decisions to refuse, grant subject to limitation or condition, or revoke such a certificate (regulation 15); provide that the Executive may grant exemptions from any requirement or prohibition of the Regulations in specified circumstances (regulation 16); contain transitional provisions regarding certificates of training, certificates of medical fitness to dive, diving operation log books and diver’s log books (regulation 17); revoke the Diving Operations at Work Regulations 1981 and certain other instruments which amended them (regulation 18); provide for consequential amendments to specified instruments (regulation 19 and Schedule (2)). A copy of the compliance cost assessment prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive, Safety Policy Division, Branch C2, Room 4SW, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS. A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.

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