UK Offence Report

Relevant Offences

regulation 2 of The Waste Management (Miscellaneous Provisions) 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

2 An offence shall be

a relevant offence for the purposes of section 74(3)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (in addition to the offences prescribed by regulation

3 of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994) if it is an offence under paragraph 15(1), (3), (4) or (5) of Schedule

5 to the Finance Act 1996 (landfill tax).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 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.

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 2?

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 Waste Management (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1997.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
13 February 1997
In force from
14 March 1997
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 make miscellaneous amendments to waste management legislation. Section 74 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 makes provision for the determination by a waste regulation authority of the question whether a person is or is not a fit and proper person to hold a waste management licence. One consideration is whether such a person has been convicted of a “relevant offence”; relevant offences are listed in regulation 3 of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994. Regulation 2 prescribes as additional relevant offences the criminal offences in respect of landfill tax created by paragraph 15(1) and (3) to (5) of Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 1996. Regulation 3 substitutes a new Schedule for that in the Environmental Protection (Waste Recycling Payments) Regulations 1992, which make provision for determining the net saving of expenditure payable by waste disposal authorities to waste collection authorities and other persons who collect and retain waste for recycling. The Schedule provides figures for determining the net saving where this cannot otherwise be determined because sufficient accurate information is not available or could only be obtained at excessive cost. The new Schedule increases the figures, firstly, to take account of rises in the retail price index and, secondly by £7 per tonne to reflect the additional cost associated with the landfill tax. Regulation 4 revokes earlier amendments which are spent.

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