UK Offence Report

Liability of persons other than the principal offender

regulation 22(2) of The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2008 (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

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 22(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 Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment 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
10 January 2008
In force from
1 February 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 revoke and replace the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/1463) which implemented the European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/95/EC (OJ L 37, 13.3.2003, p. 19) on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“the Directive”). The Annex to the Directive can be amended by Commission Decisions and the 2006 Regulations reflected the amendments made to the Directive by Commission Decision 2005/618/EC (OJ L 214, 19.8.2005, p. 65), Commission Decision 2005/717/EC (OJ L 271, 15.10.2005, p. 48), Commission Decision 2005/747/EC (OJ L 280, 25.10.2005, p. 18) and Commission Decision 2006/310/EC (OJ L 115, 28.4.2006, p. 38). Since the 2006 Regulations were made, the Directive has been amended by a further three decisions: Commission Decision 2006/690/EC (OJ L 283, 14.10.2006, p. 47), Commission Decision 2006/691/EC (OJ L 283, 14.10.2006, p. 48) and Commission Decision 2006/692/EC (OJ L 283, 14.10.2006, p. 50). All three decisions amend the list of exempt applications of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphenyl ethers to which the Directive does not apply, which is set out in the Annex to the Directive. It is expected that the Annex will be subject to further amending decisions over time: an up to date record of such decisions can be found on the European Commission’s website at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/legis_en.htm and an up to date list of exempt applications can be found at http://www.berr.gov.uk/innovation/sustainability. These Regulations apply to new electrical and electronic equipment within the categories set out in the Schedule and to electric light bulbs and to luminaires for use in households that are put on the market on or after 1st July 2006 (when the 2006 Regulations came into force: regulation 24(1)). These Regulations do not apply to— a spare parts for the repair of electrical and electronic equipment or to the reuse of such equipment put on the market before 1st July 2006 (regulation 24(2)); and b the applications of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and polybrominated diphenyl ethers listed in the Annex to the Directive, as amended from time to time (regulation 5). General requirements relating to the putting on the market on or after 1st July 2006 of new electrical and electronic equipment are set out in Part 2. New equipment put on the market must not contain more than the permissible maximum concentration values of hazardous substances (regulation 7). Regulation 8 sets out requirements relating to technical documentation. The Secretary of State has the duty of enforcing the Regulations (regulation 9) and may appoint any person to act on its behalf. The Secretary of State has the power to make test purchases (regulation 10), require production of documents and information (regulation 11) and serve compliance and enforcement notices in cases of suspected non-compliance with the requirements of Part 2 (regulations 14 and 15). Enforcement officers acting on the Secretary of State’s behalf have powers to enter premises and carry out various information-gathering functions (regulations 12 and 13). Any 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 16). Penalties for such offences are set out in regulation 17. The current maximum fine under level 5 on the standard scale is £5000. Where regulation 7 has been contravened, the court may also order the defendant to take remedial action or pay the costs of the Secretary of State’s investigation (regulations 18 and 19). Proceedings in relation to offences may be commenced within 12 months of the offence being committed (regulation 20). A defence of due diligence is provided in regulation 21 and the liability of persons other than the principal offender is set out in regulation 22. There is provision for service of documents under the Regulations under regulation 23. These Regulations will be included amongst the subordinate legislation which has been specified for the purposes of Part 9 of the Enterprise Act 2002 relating to the disclosure of information (regulation 26). An Impact Assessment (IA) in respect of these Regulations is available and a copy can be obtained from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. As these Regulations transpose the Directive, a transposition note (TN) setting out how the Government will transpose the Directive into UK law has been prepared. Copies of the IA and TN are available from the Enterprise and Business Group, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET. 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

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