UK Offence Report

1 If the Company fails to: a comply in any material respect with a direction given under articles 6, 7 or…

article 18(1) of The Lynn Offshore Wind Farm Order 2003

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

1 If the Company fails to: a comply in any material respect with a direction given under articles 6, 7 or 10, b give notification as required by article 7, or c comply in any material respect with articles 8, 10, 11 or 12 it shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale; but it shall be a defence to the Company to show that all due diligence was used to secure compliance with the direction or to give the required notification.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 company
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

The provision gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses reasonably practicable; which element that governs was not determined.

The defence, as drafted

to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale; but it shall be a defence to the Company to show that all due diligence was used to secure compliance with the direction or to give the required notification.

What would breach article 18(1)?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Lynn Offshore Wind Farm Order 2003, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
29 October 2003
In force from
19 November 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order authorises the construction, operation and maintenance of an offshore wind farm in navigable waters consisting of 30 wind turbines off the coast of Skegness, Lincolnshire including the provision of cabling under the sea between the turbines and the shore. The Order also provides for an exclusion zone for navigation, during construction. A copy of the deposited plans and the deposited sections prescribed by rules 12(1), 12(3) and 12(5) of the Transport and Works (Applications and Objections Procedure) (England and Wales) Rules 2000 (S.I. 2000/2190) may be inspected free of charge during working hours at the offices of AMEC Offshore Wind Power Limited, Bridge End, Hexham, Northumberland NE46 4NU.

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