UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 13(1) of The Environmental Protection (Disposal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and other Dangerous Substances) (England and Wales) Regulations 2000

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

1 A person who holds any contaminated equipment in contravention of regulation

3 is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 13(1)?

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 holds any contaminated equipment in contravention of regulation 3.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Environmental Protection (Disposal of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and other Dangerous Substances) (England and Wales) Regulations 2000, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ 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.

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
12 April 2000
In force from
4 May 2000
Extent
E+W

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 relate to Council Directive 96/59/EC (“the Directive”) on the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated terphenyls (“PCBs”). They are for the purpose of implementing the provisions of the Directive which require decontamination or disposal of PCBs and equipment containing them and the associated provisions for inventories, labelling and monitoring. They are additional to the existing relevant requirements of the waste management licensing regime under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Subject to exceptions, in particular for businesses concerned with decontamination and disposal of PCBs, regulation 3 prohibits the holding of certain equipment contaminated by PCBs (“contaminated equipment”) by anyone other than a person registered with the Environment Agency (“the Agency”) under these Regulations. This prohibition applies after 31st July 2000. Subject to exceptions, in particular for businesses concerned with decontamination and disposal of PCBs, for transformers and for certain other equipment being replaced under major replacement programmes, regulation 4(1) prohibits the holding of PCBs and equipment containing them (whether or not within the definition of “contaminated equipment” in regulation 2). This provision applies even though a person is registered with the Agency, but applies only after 31st December 2000. Contaminated equipment is to be labelled as such (regulation 5) and, when decontaminated, within specified limits, is to be re-labelled in the form set out in Schedule 2 to the Regulations (regulation 4(4)(d)). Regulation 6 provides for the procedure for registration. Applicants for registration are required to specify, amongst other things, the date by which they expect to have decontaminated or disposed of the equipment concerned. Regulation 7 provides for cancellation of the registration and regulation 8 for appeals against the non-determination of an application for registration or the cancellation of a registration. Registered holders are required to provide information to the Agency on a regular basis (regulation 10). Regulations 9, 10(3) and 11 set out the duties of the Agency to monitor the information supplied, to prepare an inventory and to review it at regular intervals, to provide an annual statement of the number of registered holders and items of equipment of which particulars are registered, and in relation to public registers. The preparation of inventories by the Agency and the provision of summaries is to facilitate the discharge of the obligation imposed by Article 4.1 of the Directive to send to the Commission a summary of the inventories of equipment with PCB volumes of more than 5dm3. The Agency also obtains other relevant information through the system of consignment notes under the Special Waste Regulations 1996. Regulation 12 concerns charges payable to the Agency under the Environment Act 1995. Regulation 13 creates criminal offences. Regulation 14 revokes the Control of Pollution (Supply and Use of Injurious Substances) Regulations 1986 (“the 1986 Regulations”) and regulation 2 of the Environmental Protection (Controls on Injurious Substances) Regulations 1992 (which amends the 1986 Regulations) as they apply in England and Wales. These are superseded, in particular, by regulation 4 of these Regulations. Schedule 1 to the Regulations records the disposal operations D8 to D10, D12 and D15 set out in Annex IIA of Directive 75/442/EEC on waste, as replaced by Council Decision 96/350. These are the only permitted methods of disposal of PCBs and equipment contaminated by PCBs under the Directive. Schedule 2 sets out the Directive’s requirements for the labelling of decontaminated equipment. An assessment which indicates the cost of compliance to businesses (a “regulatory impact assessment”) in respect of these Regulations may be obtained from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, zone 3/B8, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE. A copy has been placed in the library of each of the Houses of Parliament.

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