UK Offence Report

Amendment of the principal Regulations

regulation 4(b) of The Plant Protection Products (Amendment) Regulations 1997

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

b at the end of the regulation there shall be inserted the following paragraph–

3 Any person who contravenes or causes or permits any person to contravene any requirement imposed under this regulation shall be guilty of an offence. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 4(b)?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or causes or permits any person to contravene any requirement imposed under this regulation.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Plant Protection Products (Amendment) Regulations 1997, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Plant Protection Products Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2002
Revoked on
30 March 2002
Made
3 January 1997
In force from
31 January 1997
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 further amend the Plant Protection Products Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/887), as amended (S.I. 1996/1940), (“the principal Regulations”) which implement in Great Britain Council Directive 91/414/EEC concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (“the Directive”), as amended by Commission Directive 93/71/EEC, Commission Directive 94/37/EC, Commission Directive 94/79/EC, Commission Directive 95/35/EC and Commission Directive 95/36/EC, each of which amends Annexes II and III to the Directive. The Regulations– a amend the definition of the Directive provided in the principal Regulations in consequence of Commission Directive 96/12/EC (OJ No. L65, 15.3.96, p. 20) and Commission Directive 96/46/EC (OJ No. L214, 23.8.96, p. 18), each of which amends Annexes II and III to the Directive (regulation 3); b make certain modifications to the powers of seizure and disposal (regulation 4) and strengthen the enforcement of such powers (regulations 6 and 7); c extend the disapplication of the Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 (S.I. 1986/1510) to plant protection products which are approved under regulation 9 of the principal Regulations (regulation 8); d make certain minor amendments in order to clarify the principal Regulations (regulations 5 and 9). A compliance cost assessment has been prepared and a copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies of the compliance cost assessment can be obtained from the Pesticides Safety Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Room 30LR8, Mallard House, Kings Pool, 3 Peasholme Green, York YO1 2PX.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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 0.92.

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