UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations 1994

regulation 2 of The Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) (Amendment) 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

No such mark was provided for subsequently in the Marking Directive. ;

f for regulation 4(3) there is substituted—

3 Paragraph (1) above shall not apply in relation to

a battery or accumulator which is marketed in Great Britain on or after 18th December 2000 and which was manufactured for sale in, or imported into, the Community on or after 1st January 1994. ; and

g for regulation 7(1) there is substituted—

1 Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3) below, any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of regulation

3 above, or any notice served pursuant to regulation

6 above within the period specified in that notice, shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding level

5 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

— 1 Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3) below, any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of regulation 3 above, or any notice served pursuant to regulation 6 above within the period specified in that notice, shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exc

What would breach regulation 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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) (Amendment) Regulations 2000, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. 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
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2000-12-18); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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 November 2000
In force from
18 December 2000
Extent
E+W+S

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 implement Commission Directive 98/101/EC (OJ No L1, 5.1.99, p. 1; “the amending Directive”), which amends Council Directive 91/157/EEC on batteries and accumulators containing certain dangerous substances (OJ No L78, 26.3.91, p. 38; “the Batteries Directive”). The Batteries Directive was implemented by the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/232) (“the principal Regulations”), which these Regulations amend. The principal changes are— a the principal Regulations apply as from the date of coming into force of these amending Regulations to— Batteries and accumulators put on the market as from 1st January 1999 containing more than 0.0005% of mercury by weight; Batteries and accumulators put on the market as from 18th September 1992 and containing: more than 25mg of mercury per cell, except alkaline manganese batteries, more than 0.025% of cadmium by weight, more than 0.4% of lead by weight; Alkaline manganese batteries containing more than 0.025% of mercury by weight placed on the market as from 18th September 1992; (regulation 2(c) of these Regulations, regulation 2A of the principal Regulations, implementing Article 1.2 of and the Annex to the amending Directive); a prohibited battery or accumulator means batteries and accumulators (whether incorporated into appliances or otherwise) containing more than 0.0005% of mercury by weight, other than button cells and batteries composed of button cells with a mercury content of no more than 2% by weight (regulation 2(d) of these Regulations, regulation 3(2) of the principal Regulations, implementing Article 1.1 of the amending Directive); and the maximum penalty for any offence under the principal Regulations is increased to level 5 on the standard scale (regulation 2(g) of these Regulations, regulation 7(1) of the principal Regulations). At the time of making these Regulations, level 5 stands at £5,000. A regulatory Impact Assessment is available, copies of which have been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies are also available from the Environment Directorate of the Department of Trade and Industry, Bay 425, 151, Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SS.

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