UK Offence Report

Offence and penalty

regulation 41(1) of The Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015

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 who breaches

a provision of these Regulations commits 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 41(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person breaches a provision of these Regulations.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
9 March 2015
In force from
1 May 2015
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 consolidate, with minor corrections and drafting changes, the provisions set out in regulation 44. They continue to implement in England Council Directive 91/676/EEC (concerning the protection of waters against pollution by nitrates from agricultural sources) and Commission Decision 2009/431/EC granting a derogation pursuant to that Directive. Part 2 of the Regulations provides for the designation of land as nitrate vulnerable zones. It requires the Environment Agency to make recommendations to the Secretary of State about designations and for the Secretary of State to publish proposals. It establishes an appeals procedure against a proposed designation to the First-tier Tribunal. Part 3 imposes annual limits on the amount of nitrogen from organic manure that may be applied or spread in a holding in a nitrate vulnerable zone. Part 4 establishes requirements relating to the amount of nitrogen to be spread on a crop, and requires an occupier to plan in advance how much nitrogen fertiliser will be spread. Part 5 requires an occupier to provide a risk map of the holding and imposes conditions on how, where and when to spread nitrogen fertiliser. It also establishes closed periods during which the spreading of nitrogen fertiliser is prohibited. Part 6 makes provision for how nitrogen fertiliser must be stored. Part 7 specifies which records must be kept. Part 8 provides for the procedure for an application for a derogation and establishes an appeals procedure against the refusal of an application. Schedule 3 sets out the additional requirements to be met by an occupier of a derogated holding. Part 9 requires the Secretary of State to review the Regulations. Part 10 makes provision about enforcement. Breach of the Regulations is an offence punishable with a fine on summary conviction or on conviction on indictment. The Environment Agency is responsible for enforcing the Regulations. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as, given that it is a consolidation, no additional impact on business or the private or voluntary sector is foreseen.

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 “commits 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