UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013

regulation 2(15) of The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2014

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

15 For regulation 91 (Penalties) substitute— 91 1 A person who is guilty of an offence under regulation 90(1), (3), (5), (7) or (8) will be liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 2(15)?

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 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2014.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2014-07-25); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
2 July 2014
In force from
25 July 2014
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 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 (S.I. 3113/2013) (“the 2013 regulations”) and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/3032). The 2013 regulations implement Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4th July 2012 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (OJ No L 197, 24.07.2012, p.38). Regulation 2 substitutes references to The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Charges) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 with references to The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014. Regulation 2 also corrects minor drafting errors in regulation 33 (payment of a compliance fee), regulation 37 (reporting: EEE placed on the market during the transitional period) and regulation 38 (reporting: EEE placed on the market from 1st January 2019) regulation 53 (notification of the intention to retain WEEE failing within certain WEEE streams), regulation 61 (application for approval), regulation 69 (take back: Application to use existing collection facilities), regulation 75 (duties of the appropriate authority in relation to registration of small producers), regulation 76 (approval of compliance fee: methodology and administration), regulation 78 (monitoring), regulation 81 (approval of authorised treatment facilities and exporters), regulation 88 (enforcement notice), regulation 91 (penalties) and deletes paragraphs (5) and (6) of Schedule 12 of the 2013 regulations. Regulation 3 and Schedules 1 and 2 of these Regulations also amend the 2013 regulations to reflect the observations of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments in their Twentieth Report of session 2013-14. Regulation 4 amends the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012 in order to implement the Corrigendum to Directive 2011/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2011 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (OJ No L 44, 14.02.2014, p 55). No impact assessment has been carried out on this instrument as no effect on the cost of business and the voluntary sector is foreseen. Two full impact assessments of the effect that the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 will have on the cost to business and the voluntary sector have been prepared. A full impact assessment of the effect that the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012 will have on the cost of business and the voluntary sector has also been prepared. These impact assessments can be obtained from the Advanced Manufacturing Services Directorate, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET and at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249743/bis-13-1181-impact-assessment-waste-electrical-and-electronic-equipment-weee-system.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/186971/bis-13-763-impact-assessment-of-recast-directive-2012-19-eu-on-waste-electrical-and-electronic-equipment-weee.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/255814/bis-12-1277-final-impact-recast-restriction-of-hazardous-substances-directive.pdf

Read the full note and every offence in this 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 is “guilty of an offence”; c10_offence_under_parent_act
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