UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005

the instrument as a whole of The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Noise at Work Regulations 2005.

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
18 June 2005
In force from
6 April 2006
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 the Noise at Work Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/1790), and implement as respects Great Britain Directive 2003/10/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ No. L42, 15.2.2003, p.38) on the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (noise) (seventeenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC). The Regulations impose duties on employers and on self-employed persons to protect both employees who may be exposed to risk from exposure to noise at work and other persons at work who might be affected by that work. The Regulations make provision for— lower exposure action values, upper exposure action values, and exposure limit values for daily or weekly personal noise exposure and for peak sound pressure (regulation 4); risk assessment (regulation 5); elimination or, where elimination is not reasonably practicable, reduction of exposure to noise to as low a level as is reasonably practicable (regulation 6(1)); a programme of measures, excluding the provision of personal hearing protectors, to be taken at the upper exposure action values to reduce exposure to noise to as low a level as is reasonably practicable (regulation 6(2)); actions to be taken at the exposure limit values and prohibition on exceeding the exposure limit values (regulation 6(4)); the provision of personal hearing protectors upon request at the lower exposure action values and compulsorily at the upper exposure action values (regulation 7(1) and (2)); the designation in the workplace of Hearing Protection Zones (regulation 7(3)); employers'; and employees' duties concerning the use of equipment, including personal hearing protectors, provided under the Regulations (regulation 8); health surveillance (regulation 9); information, instruction and training (regulation 10); power to the Health and Safety Executive to grant exemptions from regulation 6(4) and regulation 7(1) and (2) in specified circumstances (regulation 11); power to the Health and Safety Executive to grant exemptions from regulation 6(4) and regulation 7(1) to (3) in respect of the activities of emergency services (regulation 12); power to the Secretary of State for Defence to grant exemptions from regulation 6(4) and regulation 7(1) to (3) in respect of activities carried out in the interests of national security (regulation 13); and consequential revocations and amendments (regulation 15 and Schedule 3)). The Regulations provide for transitional periods for the commencement of their operation as follows— for the music and entertainment sectors only they shall not come into force until 6th April 2008 and the provisions listed for amendment and revocation in regulation 15 and Schedule 3 shall remain in force unaltered until that date (regulations 1(a) and 15(3)); and where, despite regulation 3(4), they apply to the master and crew of a seagoing ship, regulation 6(4) only shall not come into force until 6th April 2011 (regulation 1(b)). Copies of International Standard ISO 1999: 1990, referred to in Schedule 1, are available from International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 1 Rue de Varembé, Case Postale 56, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland, or via Internet at www.iso.org. A copy of the regulatory impact assessment 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 the implementation of Directive 2003/10/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 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 libraries 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