UK Offence Report

Offence and penalties

regulation 42(1) of The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011

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 A person is guilty of an offence who—

a if they are not

a specified person, fails to comply with regulation 25; or

b fails to comply with

a compliance notice, stop notice or restoration 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 42(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 Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

level 5 is unlimited in England and Wales for offences committed on or after 12 March 2015 (LASPO 2012 s.85, S.I. 2015/664).

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
28 March 2011
In force from
Not determined
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 transpose, for England and Wales, Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste (OJ No. L 312, 22.11.2008, p3). Part 2 requires the establishment of waste prevention programmes and makes related provision. Part 3 and Schedule 1 require waste management plans for England and Wales. Part 4 and Schedule 1 make supplementary provision in relation to waste prevention programmes and waste management plans, including provision for public participation in their preparation and revision. Part 5 imposes duties in relation to the improved use of waste as a resource. Regulation 12 requires the waste hierarchy in Article 4 of the Directive to be applied as a priority order. Regulations 13 and 14 apply from 1st January 2015 to require the separate collection of waste paper, metal, plastic and glass and prohibit mixing of those wastes once separately collected. Part 6 imposes duties on planning authorities (defined in regulation 16(3)) when exercising certain functions under the planning Acts (defined in regulation 16(2)). Part 7 imposes duties on authorities responsible for licensing deposits of waste at sea. Part 8 makes provision in relation to carriers of waste and brokers and dealers in waste and Part 9 provides for the transfer note to be completed on the transfer of waste. Part 10 provides for enforcement. Part 11 and Schedules 2 to 4 make provision in relation to the reduction of administrative burden, radioactive waste and the amendment and revocation of other legislation. A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on business, the voluntary sector and the public sector is available from the Waste Programme, 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 www.legislation.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.

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 is “guilty of 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