UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 23(1) of The Ecodesign for Energy-Using Products (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (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

1 It is an offence— a for a person to contravene— i regulation 3 (restriction on listed products), ii regulation 6A (restriction on special purpose lamps), or iii regulation 9 (misleading markings); b for a manufacturer to contravene regulation 4 (conformity assessments, declarations of conformity and the CE conformity marking); c for an authorised representative or an importer of a listed product to contravene regulation 5 (authorised representatives and importers); d for a manufacturer, authorised representative or an importer of a listed product to contravene regulation 8 (non-conformity) or 10 (documentation for inspection); or e for a person to fail to comply with an enforcement notice.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 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 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 23(1)?

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. Being served with a notice under the Ecodesign for Energy-Using Products (Amendment) Regulations 2009 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
20 September 2009
In force from
15 October 2009
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 Ecodesign for Energy-Using Products Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2037/ 2007) (“the EuP Regulations”). Regulation 3(2) amends regulation 2 (interpretation) to include the following implementing measures made under Directive 2005/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-using products: Commission Regulation (EC) 278/2009 (external power supplies); Commission Regulation (EC) 1725/2008 (standby and off mode electric power consumption of electrical and electronic household and office equipment); Commission Regulation (EC) 107/2009 (simple set-top boxes); Commission Regulation (EC) 245/2009 (fluorescent lamps without integrated ballast, high intensity discharge lamps and for ballasts and luminaires able to operate such lamps); Commission Regulation (EC) 244/2009 (non-directional household lamps); Commission Regulation (EC) 642/2009 (televisions); Commission Regulation (EC) 641/2009 (glandless standalone circulators and glandless circulators integrated in a product); Commission Regulation (EC) 640/2009 (electric motors); and Commission Regulation (EC) 643/2009 (household refrigerating appliances). Regulation 4 inserts new regulation 6A which introduces new requirements when placing a special purpose lamp on the market. Regulation 5 amends regulation 8(3) (non-conformity) to provide for where a manufacturer, an authorised representative or importer of a listed product withdraws a listed product from the market such person must as soon as possible notify any authorised person or if no such person is authorised, the enforcing authority. Regulation 6 amends regulation 16 (non-conformity notices) requiring a notified body to also supply a copy of any non-conformity notice which has the effect of restricting or prohibiting a listed product from being placed on the market to an authorised person. Regulation 7(4) replaces regulation 21 (appeals against enforcement notices) and provides for what must be included in an enforcement notice, what a recipient of an enforcement notice is required to do to comply with the notice and specifies the period within which the recipient must comply with the notice. Consequential amendments are made to Schedule 9 (powers of enforcing authorities) by way of Regulation 14 to avoid duplication of these provisions. Regulation 8(2) replaces regulation 23 (offences and penalties in respect of regulations 3 to 5 and 8 to 10). Failing to comply with regulation 6A and failing to comply with an enforcement notice are now included in the list of offences. Regulation 8(3) replaces regulation 25 (commencement of summary proceedings). The effect of this is that the enforcement regime under the EuP Regulations is not subject to the “6 month rule” that applies in proceedings before the Magistrates’ Court (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Sheriff Court (Scotland), in the absence of any contrary legislative provision. The amendment provides the enforcing authority a period of 12 months to bring a prosecution under the EuP Regulations, applicable from the date that it considers it has sufficient evidence to bring proceedings. Regulation 8(4) inserts new regulation 27A which provides a power for the court to include the costs of purchasing testing or examining listed products in an order for costs following a conviction. A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Sustainable Products and Consumers Division, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ergon House, Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2AL and is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the OPSI website (www.opsi.gov.uk).

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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