Liability of persons other than the principal offender

regulation 17(2) of The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006

Revoked
Strict liability
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 Where a body corporate commits an offence and it is proved that the offence was committed— a with the consent or connivance of an officer of the body corporate; or b as a result of the negligence of an officer of the body corporate, the officer, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of the 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 body corporate
Conduct: breaching the provision
Fault element: Strict liability
Burden of proof: Legal burden on the defendant

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 body corporate 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 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: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

tions it shall be a defence for that person to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. 2 Where, in any proceedings against a person for such an offence, the defence provided by paragraph (1) involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due to— a the act or default of another; or b reliance on in

What would breach regulation 17(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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006.

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.

Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales
How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.
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.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
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: Revoked
Revoked by: The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2008 (revoked)
Revoked on: 1 February 2008
Made: 25 May 2006
In force from: 1 July 2006
Extent: Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

These Regulations revoke and replace the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/2748) which implemented the European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/95/EC (OJ No. L37, 13.3.03, p.19) on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“the Directive”), as amended by Decision 2005/618/EC (OJ No. L214, 19.8.05, p.65) establishing the maximum concentration values for certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. These Regulations incorporate the further amendments to the Annex of the Directive by Commission Decision 2005/717/EC (OJ No. L271, 15.10.05, p. 48), Commission Decision 2005/747/EC (OJ No L280, 25.10.05, p.18) and Commission Decision 2006/310/EC (OJ No. L115, 28.4.06, p.38). These Decisions amend the list of exempt applications set out in the Annex. These Regulations apply to new electrical and electronic equipment within the categories set out in Schedule 1 and to electric light bulbs and to luminaires for use in households that are put on the market on or after 1st July 2006. They do not apply to: a spare parts for the repair of electrical and electronic equipment or to the reuse of such equipment put on the market before 1st July 2006 (regulation 5(1)); and b the applications of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and polybrominated diphenyl ethers listed in Schedule 2 (regulation 5(2)). General requirements relating to the putting on the market on or after 1st July 2006 of electrical and electronic equipment are set out in regulations 7 to 9. New equipment put on the market must not contain more than the permissible maximum concentration values of hazardous substances (regulation 7). Regulations 8 and 9 set out requirements relating to technical documentation. The Secretary of State has the duty of enforcing the Regulations (regulation 10) and may appoint any person to act on his behalf. The Secretary of State has the power to serve a compliance notice (regulation 11) and make test purchases (regulation 12). Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with a requirement of regulation 7, 8 or 9 shall be guilty of an offence (regulation 13). Penalties for such offences are set out in regulation 14. The current maximum fine under level 5 on the standard scale is £5000. Proceedings in relation to offences may be commenced within 12 months of the offence being committed (regulation 15). A defence of due diligence is provided in regulation 16 and the liability of persons other than the principal offender is set out in regulation 17. There is provision for service of documents under the Regulations under regulation 18. Regulation 19 amends the Enterprise Act 2002 (Part 9 Restrictions on Disclosure of Information) (Specification) Order 2004 (S.I. 2004/693) by substituting for the reference to the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2005 a reference to these Regulations. These Regulations will be included amongst the subordinate legislation which has been specified for the purposes of Part 9 of the Enterprise Act 2002 relating to the disclosure of information. A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) in respect of these Regulations is available and a copy can be obtained from the Department of Trade and Industry. As these Regulations transpose the Directive, a transposition note (TN) setting out how the Government will transpose the Directive into UK law has been prepared. Copies of the RIA and TN are available from the Science and Innovation Group, 151 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 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

Other offences in the same instrument

A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the requirements of— a regulation 7; b regulation 8;…regulation 13

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 “commits 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 Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheriesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 2006