UK Offence Report

Protection of the environment

regulation 17 of The Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007

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

17 A person commits an offence if he fails to comply with Article 49(1) (the management of shipments of waste in an environmentally sound manner and without endangering human health).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 regulation 17?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person fails to comply with Article 49(1) (the management of shipments of waste in an environmentally sound manner and without endangering human health).
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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

The Ministry of Justice records offences under this instrument against offence code 9176 — 09176 - Triable either way offences under Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007. That code may cover several provisions of the instrument, so a count against it is not a count of prosecutions under this provision alone.

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have their own code in the MoJ’s Outcomes by Offence data tool. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
12 June 2007
In force from
12 July 2007
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 enforce Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on shipments of waste (OJ No L 190, 12.7.2006, p.1)(the “Community Regulation”). Regulations 6 and 7 set out the competent authorities for the purposes of the Community Regulation. Regulation 11 requires the Secretary of State to implement a waste management plan that contains his policies on the bringing into, or dispatch from, the United Kingdom of waste for disposal. Regulations 12 and 13 require the Secretary of State to consult on that plan. Regulation 15 requires the competent authorities of dispatch and destination to object to shipments of waste that do not comply with that plan. Regulation 17 creates an offence for shipping waste in breach of the requirements of the Community Regulation to manage shipments in an environmentally sound manner and without endangering human health. Regulations 19 and 20 create offences for failure to comply with the procedural requirements in the Community Regulation that apply to shipments of waste to or from the United Kingdom to or from other member States. Regulations 21 to 25 create offences for failure to comply with the prohibitions and procedural requirements in the Community Regulation that apply to exports of waste from the United Kingdom to third countries. Regulations 26 to 31 create offences for failure to comply with the prohibitions and procedural requirements in the Community Regulation that apply to imports of waste into the United Kingdom from third countries. Regulations 32 to 35 create offences for failure to comply with the procedural requirements in the Community Regulation that apply to the transit of waste through the United Kingdom to and from third countries. Regulations 36 to 45 create offences for failure to comply with the additional duties in the Community Regulation of notifiers, persons who arrange shipments of waste subject to the general information requirements, operators of facilities, consignees and laboratories in respect of the shipment, recovery or disposal of waste in the United Kingdom. Regulation 46 amends the Environment Act 1995 (c. 25) to enable the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to prescribe fees for the carrying out of their functions under the Community Regulation. Schedule 2 sets out the fees that will apply in England, Wales and Scotland until a charging scheme under that Act takes effect. Schedule 3 sets out the fees that will apply in Northern Ireland. Regulation 47 provides for competent authorities to recover the costs of take-back under Articles 22 and 24 of the Community Regulation. Schedule 4 sets out the procedure applicable to the application for an approval of a financial guarantee or equivalent insurance. Regulation 50 provides that the Regulations must be enforced by the competent authorities. Schedule 5 sets out the enforcement powers of competent authorities, authorised persons and officers of Revenue and Customs. These Regulations were notified in draft to the European Commission in accordance with Directive 98/34/EC (OJ No L 204, 21.7.1988, p. 37), as amended by Directive 98/48/EC (OJ No L 217, 5.8.1998, p. 18). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Hazardous Waste Unit, Ergon House, Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2AL and is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the Office of Public Sector Information website.

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.

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 “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