5 A person guilty of an offence under this regulation shall on summary conviction be liable to a fine not…

regulation 16(5) of The Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipe-lines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1998

Revoked
Strict liability
Either way
Energy, communications, water and utilities

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

5 A person guilty of an offence under this regulation shall on summary conviction be liable 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: 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 16(5)?

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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipe-lines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1998.

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.

Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014
Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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 Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipe-lines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1999
Revoked on: 14 March 1999
Made: 4 April 1998
In force from: 30 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

These Regulations implement Council Directive 85/337/EEC (OJ No. L175, 5.7.85, p.40) on the Assessment of the Effects of Certain Public and Private Projects on the Environment in so far as it relates to the effects on the environment of certain offshore oil and gas projects. Provision is made requiring the Secretary of State to exercise the powers conferred on her under the Petroleum (Production) Act 1934 to grant licences relating to seaward areas in such a way as to ensure the carrying out of environmental assessments in relation to certain activities relating to exploration for, or production of, oil and gas and requiring, subject to an exception in respect of the existing use of floating installations, the obtaining of the consent of the Secretary of State to the use of a floating installation in connection with a relevant project comprising a development (regulation 3). Provision is made requiring the Secretary of State not to grant— a any consent required pursuant to the provisions of a licence granted under the 1934 Act in respect of the commencement or recommencement of the drilling of an exploration well or the getting of petroleum in the course of the testing of such a well; b any consent required pursuant to the provisions of a licence granted under the 1934 Act in connection with a development in respect of the getting of petroleum or of the erection of certain structures for the getting of petroleum or conveying petroleum to land; c any consent to the use in connection with a development of a floating installation required pursuant to regulation 3(4) of the Regulations; d any pipe-line works authorisation required by section 20 of the Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-Lines Act 1975 in respect of the construction of a pipe-line for the conveyance of petroleum where that pipe-line is a separate project or is an integral part of a project comprising a development, unless either the appropriate application was accompanied by an environmental statement in relation to the project in respect of which the consent or authorisation is sought or she has issued a direction that no such statement is required to be so submitted. (An environmental statement is a document or documents setting out the main features of the project in question and the likely environmental consequences of that project). Where the application is accompanied by an environmental statement, the Secretary of State must be satisfied before granting a consent or an authorisation that the requirements of the Regulations as to publicity and consultation have been substantially complied with and must consider the representations of the environmental authorities which are interested in the project by reason of their environmental responsibilities and the representations of the public (regulation 4). Provision is made for the granting of directions, subject to certain exceptions, that the submission of an environmental statement with an application for a consent or an authorisation is not required for projects not likely to have significant effects on the environment or where an environmental statement has already been submitted in respect of the project and the project has already been the subject of an assessment (regulation 5). Provision is made to assist persons proposing to carry out certain oil and gas projects to obtain information to prepare environmental statements (regulation 6). Provision is made with regard to publicity requirements for applications for consents or authorisations that are accompanied by environmental statements (regulation 7). Power is conferred on the Secretary of State to require persons proposing to carry out oil and gas projects to provide further information in relation to applications for consents or authorisations in respect of which environmental statements are submitted and for such information to be subject to publication requirements under regulation 7 (regulation 8). Provision is made for the carrying out of environmental assessments in relation to the exercise by the Secretary of State of powers under licences granted under the 1934 Act to require proposals to be submitted to her for her approval for the carrying out of relevant projects or to require such projects to be carried out (regulation 9). Provision is made for other member States to be informed of projects likely to have a significant effect on their environment (regulation 10)and power is conferred on the Secretary of State in whole or in part to exempt a relevant project from the provisions of the Regulations (regulation 11). Provision is made in relation to the service of notices and other documents pursuant to the Regulations (regulation 12). Provision is made by the Regulations for the making of applications to the court by persons challenging certain decisions of the Secretary of State. Subject to certain exceptions, provision is also made for the Secretary of State to make applications to the court to seek remedies in respect of the carrying out of oil and gas projects without a consent, authorisation or approval granted, or a requirement imposed, in accordance with these Regulations or in breach of conditions imposed to protect the environment (regulations 13, 14 and 15). Provision is made for the creation of offences in respect of the intentional or reckless submission of false or misleading information pursuant to the Regulations and subject to certain exceptions, the carrying out of activities without a consent, authorisation or approval granted, or requirement imposed, pursuant to the Regulations or in breach of conditions imposed to protect the environment (regulation 16). A cost compliance assessment is available from Oil and Gas Directorate, Department of Trade and Industry, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET (Tel: 0171 215 5173).

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 0.68.

Basis: the provision states a penalty in older drafting
Confidence: 0.68 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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipe-lines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1998 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Energy, communications, water and utilitiesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1998