UK Offence Report

Maximum sulphur content in gas oil

regulation 4(2) of The Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels (England and Wales) Regulations 2000

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 Any person who, on or after 1st January 2008, uses gas oil or marine gas oil with

a sulphur content exceeding 0.1 per cent by mass shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

2 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 4(2)?

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 uses gas oil or marine gas oil with a sulphur content exceeding 0.1 per cent by mass.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels (England and Wales) Regulations 2000.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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 Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels (England and Wales) Regulations 2007
Revoked on
16 February 2007
Made
5 June 2000
In force from
27 June 2000
Extent
E+W

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 implement, in England and Wales, Council Directive 1999/32/EC relating to the sulphur content of certain liquid fuels. The Regulations— a make it an offence to use heavy fuel oil on or after 1st January 2003 with a sulphur content exceeding 1 per cent, subject to certain exceptions (regulation 3); b make it an offence to use gas oil or marine gas oil on or after 1st July 2000 with a sulphur content exceeding 0.2 per cent by mass and to use such oil on or after 1st January 2008 with a sulphur content exceeding 0.1 per cent by mass (regulation 4); c require the Secretary of State to check by sampling that the sulphur content of fuels used complies with these requirements (regulation 5); d revoke the Marketing of Gas Oil (Sulphur Content) Regulations 1994 in so far as they extend to England and Wales, which are superseded by these Regulations; e provide for the granting of permits to enable an operator of a combustion plant who would not otherwise require a permit to operate the plant to apply for a permit so that he can take advantage of the exemptions to the restriction on the use of heavy fuel oil (Schedule 1); and f set out technical requirements for the analysis of samples taken under regulation 5 (Schedule 2). A regulatory impact assessment has been prepared and copies can be obtained from AEQ Division, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Zone 4/G16, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE. A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies of the British Standards publications referred to in these Regulations may be obtained from any of the outlets operated by the British Standards Institution, or by post from the British Standards Institution at Standards House, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL. The Integrated Customs Tariff of the United Kingdom, which sets out the CN codes used in the definitions of “gas oil” and “heavy fuel oil”, are published by HMSO and available from HMSO Bookshops. The 1999 Annual Book of ASTM Standards is available from the American Society for Testing and Materials, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, West Conshohocken, PA 19428, USA.

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