UK Offence Report

9 Any person who— a contravenes or fails to comply with regulation 5 or 6; or b fails to supply or retain…

regulation 9 of The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003 (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

9 Any person who—

a contravenes or fails to comply with regulation

5 or 6; or

b fails to supply or retain technical documentation or other information as required by regulations 7(1) and (2); shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2003, 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
28 July 2003
In force from
25 August 2003
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 revoke and replace with amendments the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 1998 (“the 1998 Regulations”). The 1998 Regulations implemented Articles 9 and 11 of Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on packaging and packaging waste (O.J. No. L365, 31.12.94, p. 10) which relate to the essential requirements to be satisfied by packaging. These Regulations implement in addition two Commission Decisions providing for derogations in respect of plastic crates and pallets and glass packaging. These are Commission Decision 1999/177/EC (O.J. L056, 04.03.98, p.47) and Commission Decision 2001/171/EC (O.J. L062, 02.03.01, p.20). References in the Regulations to the Community or a member State include respectively a reference to the EEA or an EEA State which are defined in regulation 2(1)(c). Part II provides for the application of the Regulations. They apply to all packaging (as defined in regulation 2(2)) other than those excluded by regulation 4. Part III sets out the general requirements of the Regulations. Regulation 5 imposes a duty on a responsible person (as defined in regulation 2(2)) who places packaging on the market to ensure that it satisfies the relevant essential requirements. The essential requirements (Annex II of Directive 94/62/EC) are set out in Schedule I. Regulation 6 imposes a duty on a responsible person who places the product on the market to ensure that the sum of the concentration levels of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium of packaging or of its packaging components, which is placed on the market on or after certain dates do not exceed certain limits on a sliding scale. Regulation 6 does not apply to packaging which is made entirely of lead crystal glass (regulation 6(2)). Regulation 6(3) introduces derogations from regulation 6(1) in respect of plastic crates and pallets and glass packaging providing respective conditions set out in Schedules II and III are met. Regulation 7(1) provides for the responsible person to keep technical documentation on compliance with the essential requirements and the heavy metals concentration limits in respect of packaging and to make this available at the request of the enforcement authority for a period of four years from the date packaging is placed on the market. Regulation 7(2) makes provision for the manufacturer or his authorised representative or if neither is established in the Community, the responsible person who places the product on the market to comply with the provisions relating to information set out in Schedules II and III to be submitted in certain circumstances and on request to the enforcement authorities. Part IV relates to enforcement of the Regulations. The enforcement authorities are the weights and measures authorities in Great Britain and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland (regulation 9 and Schedule IV). In Scotland, proceedings are brought by the Procurator-Fiscal or Lord Advocate. Regulation 9 provides for offences. Regulation 10 provides for penalties for breaches of the Regulations. There are also provisions relating to the defence of due diligence (regulation 11) as well as liability of persons other than the principal offender (regulation 12). A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) in respect of these Regulations is available and a copy may be obtained from the Department of Trade and Industry. As these Regulations maintain the implementation of Council Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste together with two Decisions relating to derogations, a transposition note (TN) setting out how the Government will transpose into UK law the main elements of this Directive and the derogations has been prepared. Copies of the RIA and TN are available from SD3 Bay 425, the Department of Trade and Industry, 151 Buckingham Palace Road, London SWIW 9SS. Copies of these documents have been placed in the libraries of both Houses 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 0.92.

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