UK Offence Report

Imposition of a variable monetary penalty, compliance notice or restoration notice

paragraph 1(4)(b) of SCHEDULE 2 of The Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010

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

b punishable on summary conviction by

a fine (whether or not it is also punishable by

a term of imprisonment),

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 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 paragraph 1(4)(b) of SCHEDULE 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 Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£250,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
26 March 2010
In force from
6 April 2010
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order is made under Part 3 of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. It permits the Environment Agency and Natural England to impose civil sanctions in relation to the offences specified in Schedule 5 to the Order. The civil sanctions are fixed monetary penalties, variable monetary penalties, compliance notices, restoration notices and stop notices, and enforcement undertakings (article 3). The Order makes provision for the procedure relating to fixed monetary penalties (Schedule 1), variable monetary penalties, compliance notices, restoration notices and third party undertakings (Schedule 2), stop notices (Schedule 3) and enforcement undertakings (Schedule 4). It permits the regulator to serve a non-compliance notice imposing a penalty in the event of non-compliance with a compliance notice, restoration notice or third party undertaking (article 7). Under article 8 the regulator may serve an enforcement cost recovery notice in relation to investigation and administration costs incurred by the regulator, and the costs of the regulator in obtaining expert advice. Article 10 sets out the appeal mechanism. Appeals are to the First-tier Tribunal. Articles 11 to 13 provide that guidance must be prepared and consulted on relating to the use of civil sanctions, and article 14 provides for publication of information on enforcement action taken by the regulator. Article 15 provides powers of entry for persons authorised by Natural England in relation to this Order (persons authorised by the Environment Agency have powers of entry under the Environment Act 1995 (c.25)). A full impact assessment has been prepared and placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. It is available at www.defra.gov.uk.

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 0.60.

Basis
the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.60 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