UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000

the instrument as a whole of The Pressure Systems Safety 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

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000.

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
20 January 2000
In force from
21 February 2000
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 re-enact with amendments the Pressure Systems and Transportable Gas Containers Regulations 1989 (“the 1989 Regulations”) as amended. The 1989 Regulations imposed safety requirements with respect to pressure systems which are used or intended to be used at work. They also imposed safety requirements to prevent certain vessels from becoming pressurised. The Regulations specified a number of exceptions. In addition to minor and drafting amendments, these Regulations make the following changes of substance. These Regulations modify and extend provision for sending, keeping and passing on in electronic form reports of examinations. Paragraphs (1) to (3) of regulation 13 (keeping of records, etc.) of the 1989 Regulations contained requirements for the keeping of specified “documents” or copies thereof and, on a change of user or owner, for passing them to the new user or owner; paragraphs (4) to (7) allowed a person making a written report of an examination under regulation 9(3) of those Regulations to do so in electronic form, and a user to keep the report in such form, rather than as a document. Paragraph (2) of regulation 2 is new. It provides that references to anything in writing or written includes its being in a form in which it is capable of being reproduced as a written copy; regulation 9(3) no longer requires a report to be signed; and regulation 14, in re-enacting regulation 13(1) to (3) of the 1989 Regulations, requires information to be kept and passed on, whether or not it has been supplied as a document. Pressure systems to which the Medical Devices Regulations 1994 apply, other than those which contain or are liable to contain steam, and pressure equipment and assemblies to which certain of the Pressure Equipment Regulations 1999 apply, are excluded from the application of regulations 4 (design and construction) and 5(1) and (4) (provision of information and marking) (regulation 3(2) and paragraph 1 of Part II of Schedule 1). The relief from regulations 5(4), 8 to 10 and 14 afforded by paragraph 2(1) of Part II of Schedule 1 (paragraph 1 of that Part in the 1989 Regulations) applies if the product of the pressure and internal volume of each of the pressure vessels of a pressure system (rather than, as formerly, of its largest vessel) is less than 250 bar litres; paragraph 2(1) does not (as did paragraph 1 aforesaid) afford relief from regulation 11 (operation); paragraph 2(2) contains transitional provision. A copy of the regulatory impact assessment prepared in respect of these Regulations may be obtained from the Economic Adviser’s Unit, Health and Safety Executive, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS. Copies have 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