Maintenance of approved works, etc.
article 38(2) of The Midland Metro (Birmingham City Centre Extension, etc.) Order 2005
- Status not determined
- Strict liability
- Summary only
- Housing, planning, heritage and land
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
2 If without reasonable cause the provisions of paragraph (1) are contravened, the Executive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to
a fine not exceeding level
3 on the standard scale.
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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 article 38(2)?
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.
- Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Midland Metro (Birmingham City Centre Extension, etc.) Order 2005, whatever the reason for doing it.
- Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.
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.
-
Environmental offences: definitive guideline
Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014
Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.
-
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline
All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
-
General guideline: overarching principles
All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
-
Totality: definitive guideline
All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.
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
- 1 July 2005
- In force from
- 22 July 2005
- 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 West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive to construct an extension to the Midland Metro light rail system from a junction with the existing Metro line 1 near the existing St Paul’s Metro stop in the City of Birmingham to a terminus at Hagley Road, Edgbaston, and, for that purpose, compulsorily to acquire land and rights in land. It contains a number of protective provisions for the benefit of affected undertakings. A copy of the deposited plans, the deposited sections and the book of reference referred to in this Order may be inspected at the offices of West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive at Centro House, 16 Summer Lane, Birmingham B19 3SD.
Read the full note and every offence in this instrument
Other offences in the same instrument
- Power to operate and use tramway systemarticle 37(3)
- Obstruction of construction of authorised worksarticle 42
- Disclosure of confidential informationarticle 51
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
- This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
- The Midland Metro (Birmingham City Centre Extension, etc.) Order 2005 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
- Housing, planning, heritage and landOther offences on the same subject
- Offences created in 2005