UK Offence Report

Liability of persons other than the principal offender

regulation 21(2) of The Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008

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 Where a body corporate commits an offence and it is proved that the offence was committed— a with the consent or connivance of an officer of the body corporate; or b as a result of the negligence of an officer of the body corporate, the officer, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of the 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 body corporate
Conduct
breaching the provision
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 body corporate 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 21(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
8 August 2008
In force from
26 September 2008
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 partially implement Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Council Directive 91/157/EEC (OJ No. L266, 26.9.2006, p.1) (“the Directive”). The following provisions of the Directive are transposed in these Regulations: Articles 4, 6(2), 11 and 21(1), (3), (4), (5) and (6). These Regulations revoke and replace the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/232) (as amended by S.I. 2000/3097 and S.I. 2001/2551) and the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (S.R. 1995/122) (as amended by S.R. 2002/300) which implemented Council Directive 91/157/EEC on batteries and accumulators containing certain dangerous substances (OJ No. L78, 26.3.1991, p.38) as amended by Commission Directive 98/101/EC (OJ No. L1, 5.1.1999, p.1). These Regulations apply to batteries and accumulators and to certain electrical and electronic equipment that are placed on the market on or after 26th September 2008. These Regulations do not apply to batteries or accumulators used in certain equipment connected with the protection of the essential security interests of EEA states and equipment designed to be sent into space. Part 2 sets out requirements relating to the placing on the market on or after 26th September 2008 of batteries and accumulators and certain electrical and electronic equipment. Regulation 4 provides that batteries and accumulators must not contain more than the permissible levels of mercury or cadmium. Regulation 5 provides that batteries, accumulators and battery packs must be marked with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol shown in Schedule 1. Regulation 6 provides that batteries and accumulators that contain more than the specified levels of mercury, cadmium or lead must be marked with the appropriate chemical symbol. Regulation 7 provides that certain electrical and electronic equipment into which a battery is or may be incorporated must be designed in such a way that a waste battery or accumulator can be readily removed from that appliance; and must be accompanied by instructions showing how the battery or accumulator can be removed safely and, where appropriate, informing the end-user of the type of the incorporated battery or accumulator. There is an exception where for safety, performance, medical or data integrity reasons continuity of power supply is necessary and requires a permanent connection between the equipment and the battery or accumulator. The Secretary of State has the duty of enforcing these Regulations (regulation 8) and may appoint a person to act on the Secretary of State’s behalf. The Secretary of State has the power to make test purchases (regulation 9) and require production of documents and information (regulation 10). Regulations 13 and 14 provide the Secretary of State with the power to serve compliance and enforcement notices in cases where a battery, accumulator or appliance does not comply with the requirements of Part 2 and require the withdrawal from the market of non-compliant goods. Enforcement officers have powers to enter premises and carry out various information-gathering functions (regulations 11 and 12). A person who contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements of Part 2 or an enforcement notice shall be guilty of an offence; there are also procedural offences of obstruction and providing false or misleading information (regulation 15). Penalties for such offences are set out in regulation 16. The current maximum fine under level 5 on the standard scale is £5,000. Where a requirement of Part 2 or of an enforcement notice has been contravened, the court may also order the defendant to take remedial action or, in the case of a contravention of regulation 4 or 6 or of an enforcement notice, pay the costs of the Secretary of State’s investigation (regulations 17 and 18). Proceedings in relation to offences may be commenced within twelve months of the offence being committed (regulation 19). A defence of due diligence is provided in regulation 20 and the liability of persons other than the principal offender is set out in regulation 21. There is provision for service of documents under these Regulations in regulation 22. Regulation 24 amends the list of subordinate legislation which is specified for the purposes of Part 9 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (disclosure of information). Information obtained by a public authority under these Regulations will be restricted and its use and disclosure subject to Part 9. Schedule 2 provides for the revocation of the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations 1994 (and amending instruments) and the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (and amending instrument). An Impact Assessment (IA) in respect of these Regulations is available and a copy can be obtained from the Business Group, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET and at http://www.berr.gov.uk/sectors/sustainability. As these Regulations partially transpose a Directive, a transposition note (TN) setting out how the Government has transposed the Directive in the United Kingdom has been prepared. Copies of the IA and TN are available from BERR as above. Copies of these documents have been placed in the libraries of both Houses 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.

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