UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Packaging, Labelling and Carriage of Radioactive Material by Rail Regulations 2002

the instrument as a whole of The Packaging, Labelling and Carriage of Radioactive Material by Rail Regulations 2002 (revoked)

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Packaging, Labelling and Carriage of Radioactive Material by Rail Regulations 2002.

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
6 August 2002
In force from
2 September 2002
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 implement Council Directive 96/49/EC (O.J. No. L235, 17.9.1996, p.25) on the approximation of the laws of the Member States with regard to the transport of dangerous goods by rail (as amended by Directive 2000/62/EC of the European Parliament and the Council (O.J. No. L279, 1.11.2000, p.44) and by Commission Directive 2001/6/EC (O.J. No. 30, 1.2.2001, p.42)) insofar as it relates to radioactive material and make provision for the carriage of radioactive material by rail. The terms and expressions used in these Regulations are defined in regulations 2 and 3 and Schedule 1. Provisions relating to the scope of the Regulations are contained in regulation 4. These Regulations revoke the Packaging, Labelling and Carriage of Radioactive Material by Rail Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/2090) and other provisions. (Regulation 5 and Schedule 2.) Before a consignor consigns radioactive material by rail, he must determine the type of radioactive material to be consigned, the transport index and the criticality safety index by reference to certain of the provisions contained in the Regulations (RID), which came into force on 1st July 2001, concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods by rail, and which are contained in the Annex to Council Directive 96/49, as amended. (Regulations 6,7 and 8.) In connection with the carriage of radioactive material by rail, certain duties are imposed on consignors, train operators, the operators of wagons, containers, tank containers, portable tanks and tank wagons, the designers of packages and the manufacturers of packagings. (Regulations 9 to 13.) No person shall cause or permit the carriage by rail of certain packages containing radioactive material unless the design has been approved in accordance with RID. Application for such approval may be made to the Secretary of State. (Regulation 14.) No person shall cause or permit the carriage by rail of special form radioactive material, unless the design therefore has been granted unilateral approval, or low dispersible radioactive material, unless the design therefore has been granted multilateral approval. Application for such approval may be made to the Secretary of State. (Regulation 15.) No person shall cause or permit the shipment of certain packages without multilateral approval. (Regulation 16.) Provision is made for shipment under special arrangements for a consignment of radioactive material where it is impracticable for the consignment to comply with the requirements of RID. (Regulation 17.) Manufacturers of packagings are required to obtain from the Secretary of State, and allocate to packagings, serial numbers. (Regulation 18.) Consignors of radioactive material, train operators, the operators of wagons, containers, tank containers, portable tanks and tank wagons, the designers of packages and the manufacturers of packagings and infrastructure controllers must each establish and maintain an adequate quality assurance programme. Before the Secretary of State gives his approval for the design of a package, the design of special form radioactive material, the design of low dispersible radioactive material or a shipment, he must be satisfied that the quality assurance programme for the design in question or the shipment, as the case may be, is adequate. (Regulation 19.) Provision is made for the training of persons involved in the carriage of radioactive material by rail. (Regulation 20.) Every person involved in the carriage of radioactive material by rail is under a duty to notify, and provide information to, the emergency services in the event of an immediate risk of injury to an individual. (Regulation 22.) Provision is made regarding security (regulation 21), the preparation of safety systems and procedures to deal with any emergency involving the carriage of radioactive material by rail (regulation 23), the marshalling and formation of trains (regulation 24) and the prevention of fire and other risks (regulation 25). Provision is also made for the keeping of certain information. (Regulation 26.) The Health and Safety Executive and the Secretary of State for Defence may grant exemptions from all or any of the requirements or prohibitions imposed by these Regulations. (Regulation 27.) These Regulations provide a defence in certain circumstances in respect of any proceedings for an offence for a contravention of any of the provisions of these Regulations. (Regulation 28.) These Regulations permit alternative compliance with specified international provisions (regulation 29), contain transitional provisions (regulation 30 and Schedule 3) and make certain amendments to other Regulations (regulations 31 and 32 and Schedule 4). A copy of the regulatory impact assessment prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive, Economic and Statistical Advice Unit, Rose Court, 2, Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS. A copy has 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