UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Principal Regulations

regulation 2(22) of The Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 (Amendment) 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

22 In regulation 33 (offences)— a for paragraphs (1) and (2) substitute— 1 A water undertaker or combined licensee which contravenes regulation 26(1) or (3) or the terms of a notice served under regulation 28(4)(d) shall be guilty of an offence and liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 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 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

that water undertaker or combined licensee to show that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence. ; b omit paragraph (4); and c in paragraph (5), omit “certifying the results of an analysis pursuant to regulation 29(15) or”.

What would breach regulation 2(22)?

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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 (Amendment) Regulations 2007, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

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

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

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
13 September 2007
In force from
22 December 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 amend the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2000/3184) (“the Principal Regulations”). The Principal Regulations implement Council Directive 98/83/EC on the quality of water intended for human consumption (“the Drinking Water Directive”) (OJNoL330, 5.12.1998, p.32) in parts of England and Wales in relation to water supplies by water undertakers and licensed water suppliers, and make further provision about the supply of drinking water. Regulation 2 amends the Principal Regulations and the main changes are as follows. Paragraph (4) inserts a requirement that water must be of uniform quality within a water supply zone designated by a water undertaker. Paragraph (5) inserts new compliance requirements for water supplied in bottles during a breakdown in the piped supply system. Paragraph (6) inserts restrictions on the authorisation of supply point monitoring where an introduction into a water supply zone is made by a licensed water supplier. Paragraph (9) inserts new risk assessment requirements in relation to water supplied from new sources. Paragraph (10) inserts new requirements in relation to monitoring of drinking water abstraction points. Monitoring at such points is necessary to comply with the new provisions on disinfection of raw water, other treatment arrangements and risk assessments inserted by paragraphs (18) to (20). Together with a monitoring programme established by the Environment Agency, this also implements in parts of England and Wales Article 8(1) and (2) of Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (OJ No L327, 22.12.2000, p.1) (“the Water Framework Directive”). This monitoring programme is established by the Environment Agency under regulation 9 of the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2003 (S.I.2003/3242), that provision as applied by regulation 5 of the Water Framework Directive (Northumbria River Basin District) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/2345) and, together with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, under paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to the Water Framework Directive (Solway Tweed River Basin District) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/99). Paragraph (14) amends the publicity requirements in relation to the authorisation of temporary supplies of unwholesome water, usually referred to as “authorised departures”. Paragraph (17) takes account of the repeal of Council Directive 75/440/EEC concerning the quality required of surface water intended for the abstraction of drinking water in the Member States (OJ No L194, 25.7.1975, p.26), as amended, by Article 22(1) of the Water Framework Directive. The new provision requires that raw water is disinfected and that other adequate treatment arrangements are in place. Breach of the these requirements is a criminal offence under provisions inserted by paragraph (22). Paragraphs (18) to (20) replace existing provisions in relation to Cryptosporidium with a general duty to conduct risk assessments of water treatment works and supply systems and to take appropriate action to deal with any potential danger to human health identified. Supplying water from water treatment works or supply systems in breach of conditions specified in a notice served under these provisions is a criminal offence under provisions inserted by paragraph (22). Paragraph (21) inserts a charging provision for approvals of substances and products used in connection with water supply. As this provision amends regulation 31 of the Principal Regulations which contains a technical regulation, these Regulations have also been notified in draft to the European Commission in accordance with Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and of rules on Information Society Services (as amended) (“the Technical Standards Directive”) (OJ No L 2004, 21.7.1998, p.37). Paragraphs (24) and (25) update the requirements relating to the provision and publication of information under the Principal Regulations. Regulation 3 makes some adjustments to Schedules 1 to 3 to the Principal Regulations in relation to certain parameters and monitoring requirements. Regulations 4 to 7 make consequential transitional provisions and revocations. A transposition note and 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 & Rural Affairs, Water Supply and Regulation Division, Ergon House, Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2AL or from the Department’s website at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/industry.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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 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