UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Coal Mines (Control of Inhalable Dust) Regulations 2007

the instrument as a whole of The Coal Mines (Control of Inhalable Dust) Regulations 2007 (revoked)

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Coal Mines (Control of Inhalable Dust) Regulations 2007.

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
29 June 2007
In force from
1 October 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 revoke and replace the Coal Mines (Respirable Dust) Regulations 1975 (S.I. 1975/1433, as amended by S.I. 1978/807). The Regulations impose duties on mine owners, mine managers, employers, and employees to protect persons at work in coal mines from risks to their health arising from exposure to inhalable dust of mineral origin. They implement as respects Great Britain those provisions of Council Directive 98/24/EC (OJ No. L 131, 5.5.98, p.11) on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks related to chemical agents at work (fourteenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC) which are applicable to risk from this source. The Regulations make provision for— the definition of inhalable dust and respirable dust, and the setting of exposure control limits for respirable dust and quartz (regulation 2); the exclusion of tourist mines, as defined, from the application of the Regulations (regulation 3); risk assessment by the mine manager (regulation 4); prevention, or where this is not reasonably practicable, reduction to as low a level as is reasonably practicable of exposure to inhalable dust by the mine manager (regulation 5); proper use of control measures by the mine manager and employees and maintenance by the mine manager (regulations 6 and 7); the operation by the mine manager of a sampling scheme for respirable dust and quartz (regulation 8); arrangements by the mine owner for the evaluation in a laboratory of samples so obtained (regulation 9); action to be taken by the mine manager when samples exceed an exposure control limit, including the stopping of operations in specified circumstances (regulation 10); health surveillance to be provided by the employer (regulation 11); information, instruction and training to be provided by the employer (regulation 12). power for the Health and Safety Executive to grant exemptions from specified provisions of the Regulations (regulation 13) ; and consequential repeals, revocations and amendments (regulation 14). Copies of publications mentioned in regulation 2 of the Regulations are available as follows— the exposure control limits for respirable dust and for quartz which the Health and Safety Commission has approved and are in force at the time of the coming into force of these Regulations are available in the Approved Code of Practice and Guidance for these Regulations, obtainable from HSE Books, PO Box 1999 Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA; and copies of British Standard BS EN 481 1993 are obtainable from British Standards Institution, BSI House, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL. 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 Council Directive 98/24/EC by these Regulations 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