Enforcement notices

Q: Is regulation 25(7)(e) of The Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015 a strict liability offence?

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.

regulation 25(7)(e) of The Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015

Status not determined
Strict liability
Either way
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheries

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

e state that it is an offence under regulation 29(1)(e) to fail to comply with the 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 25(7)(e)?

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.

Being served with a notice under the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
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: £5,000
Maximum prison (summary): Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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.

Sentencing organisations: fines and the means of a corporate defendant All courts in England and Wales
How a fine on a company is arrived at from its turnover. Relevant far beyond the guidelines that state it, because a very large share of the offences in this corpus can only be committed by an organisation.
Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014
Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.
Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.
Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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: 16 February 2015
In force from: 19 March 2015
Extent: N.I.

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

The Regulations revoke and remake with amendments the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/261). These Regulations give effect to Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on fluorinated greenhouse gases (OJ No L 150, 20.5.2014, p 195) (“the 2014 Regulation”). These Regulations also give effect to the following Commission Regulations relating to certain fluorinated greenhouse gases (“the Commission Regulations”)— a Commission Regulation (EC) No 1494/2007 (OJ No L 332, 18.12.07, p 25); b Commission Regulation (EC) No 1497/2007 (OJ No L 333, 19.12.07, p 4); c Commission Regulation (EC) No 1516/2007 (OJ No L 335, 20.12.07, p 10); d Commission Regulation (EC) No 303/2008 (OJ No L 92, 3.4.08, p 3); e Commission Regulation (EC) No 304/2008 (OJ No L 92, 3.4.08, p 12); f Commission Regulation (EC) No 305/2008 (OJ No L 92, 3.4.08, p 17); g Commission Regulation (EC) No 306/2008 (OJ No L 92, 3.4.2008, p 21); h Commission Regulation (EC) No 307/2008 (OJ No L 92, 3.4.2008, p 25); i Commission Regulation (EC) No 308/2008 (OJ No L 92, 3.4.2008, p 28); and j Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1191/2014 (OJ No L 318, 5.11.2014, p 5). The Regulations provide that references to Commission Regulation 1493/2007 and to Commission Regulation 1494/2007 are references to those Commission Regulations as amended from time to time. The Regulations extend to Great Britain. They also extend to Northern Ireland for the purposes of import and export controls and trade with any place outside the United Kingdom. The Regulations apply to offshore installations, Scottish offshore installations and Northern Ireland offshore installations. (The terms “offshore installation”, “Scottish offshore installation” and “Northern Ireland offshore installation” are defined in regulation 4). The Regulations designate the competent authority for the 2014 Regulation (regulation 5). They also provide for the designation of certification, evaluation and attestation bodies required by the Commission Regulations (Part 3). Part 4 of the Regulations sets out powers given to enforcing authorities to enforce the 2014 Regulation and the Commission Regulations. This includes, in regulation 25, the power to issue enforcement notices for failing to comply with the 2014 Regulation or the Commission Regulations. Those provisions are listed in Schedules 2 and 3. Certain breaches of the 2014 Regulation, as well as a failure to comply with an enforcement notice, are among the criminal offences set out in regulation 29. An assessment of the effects that this instrument will have on the costs of business is available from the Stratospheric Ozone and Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Team, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR and is annexed to the Government’s response to the consultation on www.gov.uk/government/consultations. The Explanatory Memorandum is published 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.

Draft Offshore Environmental Civil Sanctions Regulations 2018 Commons · 15 May 2018 · Dr Whitehead
I thank the Minister for that helpful intervention. I was attempting to establish the range of penalties that will be available under the new regime. It would be helpful to have that additional information, but the penalties basically fall into the two categories I mentioned—one with a minor range and the other with a rather more major range. Nevertheless, the top of the range of variable penalties is £50,000. In…

Other offences in the same instrument

Enforcement noticesregulation 25(7)
It is an offence for a person to do any of the following, or to cause or permit another person to do any of…regulation 29(1)
It is an offence to— a intentionally obstruct any person acting in the execution or enforcement of these…regulation 29(2)

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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Health and safety, environment, waste and fisheriesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 2015