UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002

the instrument as a whole of The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Control of Substances Hazardous to Health 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
24 October 2002
In force from
21 November 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 re-enact, with modifications, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/437) (“the 1999 Regulations”). The 1999 Regulations imposed duties on employers to protect employees and other persons who may be exposed to substances hazardous to health and also imposed certain duties on employees concerning their own protection from such exposure, and prohibited the import into the United Kingdom of certain substances and articles from outside the European Economic Area. The Regulations, with the exception of regulations 8, 9, 11(8), (10) and (11) and 14, implement as respects Great Britain— Council Directive 78/610/EEC (OJ No. L 197, 22.7.78, p.12) on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States on the protection of the health of workers exposed to vinyl chloride monomer, point 3 of Article 1 of Council Directive 89/677/EEC (OJ No. L 398, 30.12.89, p.19) amending for the 8th time the Marketing and Use Directive insofar as that point relates to the importation, supply or use of benzene and substances containing benzene for such purposes, Council Directive 90/394/EEC (OJ No. L 196, 26.7.90, p.1) on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to carcinogens at work (sixth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC) insofar as it relates to carcinogens other than asbestos, that part of Commission Directive 96/55/EC (OJ No. L 231, 12.9.96, p.20) adapting to technical progress for the 2nd time Annex I to Council Directive 76/769/EEC (“the Marketing and Use Directive”) (OJ No. L 262, 27.9.76, p.201) on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to restrictions on the marketing and use of certain dangerous substances and preparations which relates to supply of specified substances for use at work, Council Directive 98/24/EC (OJ No. L 131, 5.5.98, p.11) on the protection of the health and safety of workers from risks related to chemical agents at work (fourteenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC) insofar as it relates to risks to health from exposure to substances other than asbestos or lead, and Directive 2000/54/EC (OJ No. L 262, 17.10.2000, p.21) of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work (seventh individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC). The Regulations are consistent with the provisions of Commission Directive 91/322/EEC (OJ No. L 177, 5.7.91, p.22) on establishing indicative limit values by implementing Council Directive 80/1107/EEC on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to chemical, physical and biological agents at work. In addition to minor and drafting amendments, the Regulations make the following changes of substance— include certain further definitions (regulation 2); extend the matters to be considered when carrying out an assessment of the risk from exposure to substances hazardous to health (regulation 6); detail the measures which the employer must take to prevent or adequately control the exposure of his employees to substances hazardous to health (regulation 7); provide for further duties in respect of care and decontamination of personal protective equipment (regulation 9); provide for the keeping of an individual record of air monitoring where an employee is required to be under health surveillance (regulation 10); extend the duties on employers with respect to health surveillance where an employee is found to have an identifiable disease or adverse health effect caused by exposure to a substance hazardous to health (regulation 11); introduce a duty to ensure that the contents of containers and pipes for substances hazardous to health used at work are clearly identifiable (regulation 12(5)); introduce a duty on the employer to prepare procedures, provide information and establish warning systems to deal with an emergency in the workplace related to the presence of a substance hazardous to health (regulation 13); and apply the extension to the meaning of “work” in Part I of the 1974 Act to all Group 2, 3, or 4 biological agents and transfer certain provisions relating to biological agents which had been in Schedule 3 of the 1999 Regulations to regulations 7 and 12. Copies of the publications mentioned in the Regulations are obtainable as follows— a list of the maximum exposure limits and occupational exposure standards which the Health and Safety Commission has approved is available in the publication “EH40, Occupational Exposure Limits” obtainable from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA; and British Standard BS EN 481 1993, referred to in regulation 2(1), relating to workplace atmospheres is obtainable from the British Standards Institution, BSI House, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL. A copy of the regulatory impact assessment prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive, Economic Advisers Unit, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS. A copy of the transposition note in relation to implementation of the Directives set out in paragraph 2 can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive, International Branch at the same address. Copies of both these documents have been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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