UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999

the instrument as a whole of The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999

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

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999.

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
Status not determined
Made
11 March 1999
In force from
1 April 1999
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 impose requirements with respect to the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances. (The expressions “major accident” and “dangerous substances” are defined in regulation 2(1)). The Regulations implement Council Directive 96/82/EC on the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances, except Article 12 (which relates to land use planning). The Regulations apply to establishments (as defined in regulation 2(1)) where dangerous substances are present in quantities equal to or exceeding those specified in column 2 of Parts 2 or 3 of Schedule 1, except that regulations 7 to 14 apply to establishments where such substances are present in quantities equal to or exceeding those specified in column 3 of those Parts (regulation 3(1)). The Regulations do not apply in the cases specified in regulation 3(2). The competent authority for the purposes of the Regulations is the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency acting jointly, except that in Scotland it is the Health and Safety Executive and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency acting jointly. The Regulations— a impose a duty on the operator of an establishment to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences for persons and the environment (regulation 4); b impose a duty on the operator to prepare a major accident prevention policy document containing specified information and to revise it in specified circumstances (regulation 5 and Schedule 2); c require the operator to notify the competent authority of specified matters at specified times (regulation 6 and Schedule 3); d require the operator to send at specified times a safety report to the competent authority containing specified information, to revise that report in specified circumstances, and not to start the construction or operation of the establishment until he has received from the competent authority the conclusions of its examination of the report (regulation 7 and Schedule 4); e require the operator to review and revise the safety report in specified circumstances (regulation 8); f require the operator to prepare an on-site emergency plan for specified purposes and containing specified information (regulation 9 and Schedule 5); g require, subject to any exemption that may be granted by the competent authority, the local authority to prepare an off-site emergency plan for specified purposes and containing specified information and require the operator to supply to the local authority the information necessary to enable the plan to be prepared (regulation 10 and Schedule 5); h require on-site and off-site emergency plans to be reviewed, tested and implemented (regulations 11 and 12), and empower the local authority to charge the operator a fee for preparing, reviewing and testing the off-site emergency plan (regulation 13); i require the operator to provide, after consulting the local authority, specified information to specified persons at specified times and to make that information publicly available (regulation 14 and Schedule 6); j require the operator to demonstrate to the competent authority that he has taken all measures necessary to comply with the Regulations (regulation 15(1)); k require the operator to provide, when requested to do so by the competent authority, information to the authority for specified purposes (regulation 15(2)); l require the operator to notify major accidents to the competent authority (regulation 15(3) and (4)); m require the operator to provide information to, and to co-operate with, other establishments in a group designated by the competent authority (regulation 16); n impose functions on the competent authority with respect to— i its consideration of the safety report sent by the operator (regulation 17); ii prohibiting the operation of an establishment (regulation 18); iii inspections and investigations (regulation 19); iv enforcement (regulation 20); and v the provision of information (regulation 21 and Schedules 7 and 8); o provide for fees to be payable by the operator to the Health and Safety Executive in relation to the performance of specified functions of the Executive or competent authority (regulation 22); p amend the Petroleum Consolidation Act 1928, the Petroleum-Spirit (Motor Vehicles etc.) Regulations 1929 and the Petroleum-Spirit (Plastic Containers) Regulations 1982 so as to disapply those Regulations to establishments subject to these Regulations and to sites subject to the Notification of Installations Handling Hazardous Substances Regulations 1982 (regulation 23); q revoke the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1984, and certain other instruments which amended them (regulation 24); r contain a transitional provision (regulation 25). A copy of the regulatory impact assessment 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

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 0.70.

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