UK Offence Report

9 A person who has custody or control of any oil in circumstances in which there is a contravention of any…

regulation 9 of The Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001

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

9 A person who has custody or control of any oil in circumstances in which there is a contravention of any provision of regulations 3 to 5 or the requirements of a notice under regulation 7 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable— a on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 9?

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 has custody or control of any oil in circumstances in which there is a contravention of any provision of regulations 3 to 5 or the requirements of a notice under regulation 7.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown 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
21 August 2001
In force from
1 March 2002
Extent
E

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 require a person having custody or control of oil to carry out certain works and take certain precautions and other steps for preventing pollution of any waters which are controlled waters for the purposes of Part III of the Water Resources Act 1991. Regulation 2(2) sets out circumstances in which these Regulations do not apply to the storage of oil. Regulation 3 imposes general requirements in relation to the storage of oil. Additional requirements which apply to specific types of container are imposed by regulation 4 (fixed tanks) and regulation 5 (mobile bowsers). Regulation 6 contains transitional provisions. Where in a transitional case the Environment Agency considers that there is a significant risk of pollution of controlled waters from the oil in question it has the power to serve a notice on the person having custody or control to minimise the risk (see regulation 7). A person served with a notice has a right of appeal to the Secretary of State under regulation 8. Failure to comply with any of the requirements of regulations 3 to 5 or a notice under regulation 7 is a criminal offence (see regulation 9), punishable on conviction on indictment to an unlimited fine or on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (currently £5,000).

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 0.92.

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