UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Control of Lead at Work Regulations 1998

the instrument as a whole of The Control of Lead at Work Regulations 1998

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Control of Lead at Work Regulations 1998.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002
Revoked on
21 November 2002
Made
3 March 1998
In force from
1 April 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 re-enact the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 1980 (“the 1980 Regulations”) with modifications. The 1980 Regulations imposed requirements for the protection of employees who might be exposed to lead at work and of others who might be affected by such work. The Regulations give effect as respects Great Britain to the following provisions of Council Directive 82/605/EEC (OJ No. L247, 23.8.82, p. 12) on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to metallic lead and its ionic compounds at work. a Articles 4 to 7, 9, and 11 to 13; b Article 2 except for paragraph 2.4 in so far as it requires lead-in-air monitoring for all workers concerned where an individual worker is found to have a blood-lead level greater than 50 μg Pb/100ml blood and paragraph 2.5; c Article 3 except for paragraph 3.3(i) in so far as it requires, as a condition for the reduction in the frequency of air monitoring to once a year, that the results of measurement for individual workers have shown that on the two previous occasions of monitoring the lead-in-air concentration did not exceed 100 μg/m3; d Article 8 except for paragraph 8.4 in so far as it concerns the consultation of workers or their representatives; e Article 10 except for paragraphs 10.1(a)(ii) (requiring areas to be set aside for eating and drinking), 10.1(b)(iii) (concerning the storage of clothing) and 10.1(b)(iv) (concerning washing facilities). In addition to minor and drafting amendments, the Regulations make the following changes of substance. The Regulations extend the definition of “lead” to include lead alkyls (regulation 2(1)). The Regulations repeal or revoke various enactments relating to lead including provisions imposing general prohibitions on the employment of women and young persons in work with lead (regulation 14). In addition the Regulations— introduce a revised definition of “leadless glaze” (regulation 2(1)); introduce occupational exposure limits for lead and lead alkyls (regulation 2(1)); introduce— blood-lead action levels; and blood-lead suspension levels and urinary lead suspension levels, for women of reproductive capacity and young persons (as defined) and other employees (regulation 2(1)); reimpose a prohibition in respect of women of reproductive capacity and young persons in specified activities only (regulation 4(2) and Schedule 1); require an employer to carry out an assessment as to whether the exposure of any employee to lead is liable to be significant (as defined) (regulation 5); require an employer to ensure that only persons responsible for undertaking necessary work are permitted into an area where a significant increase in exposure to lead is likely to occur as a result of the failure of a control measure (regulation 6(9)); impose requirements concerning the examination and testing of engineering controls and respiratory protective equipment and the keeping of personal protective equipment (regulation 8(2), (3), (5) and (6)); impose new sampling procedures in respect of air monitoring (regulation 9(2) to (4)); impose requirements in relation to medical surveillance providing for— medical surveillance to be carried out at appropriate intervals (regulation 10(2) and Schedule 2); an investigation to be undertaken by an employer when the blood-lead concentration of an employee reaches a specified action level (regulation 10(4)); suitable facilities to be made available for the purpose (regulation 10(6))and for inspection by a relevant doctor (regulation 10(8)); an appropriate entry to be made in the health record of each female employee (regulation 10(9)); the right of appeal for an employer or an employee aggrieved by a decision recorded in the health record of an employee (regulation 10(10)); require that information given to employees by employers includes the results of air monitoring and health surveillance and its significance (regulation 11(2)); require the keeping of records in respect of examination and testing of control measures, air monitoring and health surveillance for specified periods (regulations 8(4), 9(5) and 10(3)). A copy of the summary cost benefit prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive, Economic Adviser’s Unit, 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

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