UK Offence Report

Waste management

regulation 7(2) of The Persistent Organic Pollutants 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

2 Any producer or holder of waste that is specified in paragraph

2 of Article

7 of that Regulation who fails to dispose of it or recover it in accordance with that paragraph is guilty of an 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 holder
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 holder 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 7(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.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a holder fails to dispose of it or recover it in accordance with that paragraph.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Persistent Organic Pollutants 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)
3 months
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

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
30 October 2007
In force from
3 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 enforce Regulation (EC) No. 850/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on persistent organic pollutants and amending Directive 79/117/EEC (OJ No. L158. 30.4.2004, p. 7. A corrected version of this Regulation was published in OJ No. L 229, 29.6.2004, p. 5). They designate competent authorities and enforcement authorities (regulation 3) and specify who carries out the duties of the member State (regulation 4). They enforce provisions relating to production, placing on the market and use of specified substances (regulation 5), stockpiles of specified substances (regulation 6) and waste management (regulation 7). They provide for applications for a derogation to use different methods of disposal of waste (regulation 8). They make provision for fees (regulation 9). Under regulation 11 a person guilty of an offence under these Regulations is liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or both, or b on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both. An impact assessment has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. It is available on the Defra website.

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