UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006

the instrument as a whole of The Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006.

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
9 March 2006
In force from
10 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 impose prohibitions and requirements in relation to safety on railways and other guided transport systems. Part 2 and regulation 20 of the Regulations implement, insofar as they apply to the mainline railway, in relation to Great Britain, Directive 2004/49/EC (O.J. No. L164, 30.04.04 p.44) of the European Parliament and the Council on safety on the Community’s railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of transport undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for use of infrastructure and safety certification (“the Rail Safety Directive”), except in relation to access to training facilities, placing in service of in-use rolling stock and accident and incident investigation. Part 1 contains the interpretation provisions. Part 2 contains prohibitions in relation to the operation of trains or vehicles on railways and other guided transport systems and the management and use of infrastructure unless a person has established and is maintaining a safety management system and in specified cases has a safety certificate in relation to the operation of vehicles or a safety authorisation in relation to the management and use of infrastructure. Part 2 also makes provision in relation to the requirements for a safety management system and the issuing, amendment and revocation of safety certificates and authorisations by, and for the giving of notices to, the Office of Rail Regulation. Part 3 provides for general duties on transport operators subject to the duties in Part 2 to carry out risk assessment, co-operate with each other and certain other persons and to prepare an annual safety report to the Office of Rail Regulation. It makes provision in relation to annual reports to the European Railway Agency and for the issuing, keeping and public inspection of documents. Part 4 makes provision in relation to the carrying out of safety critical work on guided transport systems. It imposes obligations on those controlling the carrying out of such work to ensure that it is only carried out by fit and competent persons, and that safety critical workers do not carry out such work when fatigued, and it imposes related co-operation requirements. Part 5 makes provision for appeals in relation to decisions relating to safety certificates and authorisations, for transitional provisions and savings in relation to compliance with the provisions of Parts 2 and 4, for the granting of exemptions and for a defence in relation to the safety verification requirements in regulations 5 and 6. Regulation 32 amends the Railways and Other Transport Systems (Approval of Works, Plant and Equipment) Regulations (ROTS) (S.I. 1994/157). Regulation 33 makes consequential amendments and regulation 34 revokes ROTS, the Railways (Safety Critical Work) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/299), the Railways (Safety Case) Regulations 2000 (S.I 2000/2688), regulations 2 to 16 of the the Railway Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/3291), the Railways (Safety Case) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/579) and regulation 31 of the Cableways Installations Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/129). Technical Specifications for Interoperability are published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. Common Safety Methods and Common Safety Targets are to be developed pursuant to the Rail Safety Directive and will be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. A copy of the regulatory impact assessment and of the transposition note for Directive 2004/49/EC prepared in respect of these Regulations can be obtained from the Office of Rail Regulation, One Kemble Street, London WC2B 4AN. A copy of each has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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