UK Offence Report

Prohibition notice

regulation 18(2) of The Groundwater (England and Wales) 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

2 Failure to comply with

a notice is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 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 18(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 there is failure to comply with a notice.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Groundwater (England and Wales) Regulations 2009 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. 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 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
29 October 2009
In force from
30 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 implement in England and Wales Article 6 of Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration, OJ No. L372, 27.12.2006, p.19. They continue to implement 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 L 327, 22.12.2000, p. 60). They revoke and replace the Groundwater Regulations 1998. Part 1 of the Regulations is introductory. Part 2 places requirements on the Environment Agency when they grant a permit under these Regulations, a consent under section 91(8) of the Water Resources Act 1991 and (with exceptions) an environmental permit under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007. Part 3 creates an offence of discharge of a hazardous substance or non-hazardous pollutant without a permit, and provision as to how a permit for this is applied for. Part 4 is concerned with enforcement. Regulation 17 gives the Agency powers to require information, and regulation 18 gives the Agency powers to serve notices prohibiting activities. Regulation 21 provides for codes of practice. A person guilty of an offence under regulation 13 (discharge of a hazardous substance or non-hazardous pollutant) or regulation 18 (prohibition notices) is liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or to both; or b on conviction on indictment, to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding 5 years, or to both. A person guilty of an offence under regulation 17 (provision of information) is liable— c on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or both, or d on conviction on indictment, to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both. A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector has been prepared and is available on the Defra website at www.defra.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 0.88.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.88 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