UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 14 of The Merchant Shipping (Port Waste Reception Facilities) Regulations 1997

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

14 Any harbour authority or terminal operator which fails to comply with— a any requirement of these Regulations in relation to the provision and use of waste reception facilities; b the requirements of regulation 10 above; or c any direction given pursuant to these Regulations in relation to the provision of waste reception facilities or the preparation or implementation of a waste management plan, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum and on conviction on indictment to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an harbour authority
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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 an harbour authority 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.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 14?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Merchant Shipping (Port Waste Reception Facilities) Regulations 1997, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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 Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Port Waste Reception Facilities) Regulations 2003
Revoked on
15 July 2003
Made
16 December 1997
In force from
27 January 1998
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 revoke and replace with amendments the Prevention of Pollution (Reception Facilities) Order 1984 and the Merchant Shipping (Reception Facilities for Garbage) Regulations 1988 and amend the Merchant Shipping (Fees) Regulations 1996. In addition to minor amendments, the Regulations make the following changes of substance. There is a requirement for harbour authorities to prepare a waste management plan (regulation 8) and a power whereby the Secretary of State may direct a terminal operator to prepare such a plan (regulation 9). The Secretary of State also has powers of direction in relation to the implementation of waste management plans (regulation 12). Penalties are provided for failure to comply with certain requirements of the Regulations or any direction issued (regulation 14). The amendment to the Merchant Shipping (Fees) Regulations 1996 provides for fees in connection with the preparation of waste management plans. A compliance cost assessment has been produced and copies can be obtained from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Zone 4/12, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR (telephone: 0171 271 3898). A copy has been laid in the library of each House of Parliament. Merchant Shipping Notices may be obtained from Eros Marketing Support Services, Unit B, Imber Court Trading Estate, Orchard Lane, East Molesley, Surrey KT8 0BN. Copies of the IMDG Code may be obtained from the International Maritime Organisation at 4, Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR.

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of 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