UK Offence Report

Recovery of expenses of enforcement

regulation 56(1) of The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016

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 This regulation applies where

a person commits an offence under regulation 50.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 56(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
15 November 2016
In force from
8 December 2016
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 Directive 2014/35/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of member States relating to the making available on the market of electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits (recast) (OJ No L 96, 29.3.2014, p.357) (“the Directive”). The Directive repeals and replaces Directive 2006/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 relating to electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits (OJ No L 374, 27.12.2006, p.10) which was implemented in the United Kingdom by the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/3260). These Regulations revoke and replace those Regulations. Regulation 3 sets out the application of the Regulations to certain electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits and also sets out exceptions to the application of the Regulations for electrical equipment for use in an explosive atmosphere, for radiology and medical purposes, for lifts, electricity meters, plugs and socket outlets for domestic use and certain other equipment. Part 2 sets out the obligations of economic operators. The general requirement in the Directive that electrical equipment made available on the market must be safe is fully covered by the requirements on economic operators to ensure that the equipment is in conformity with the principal elements of the safety objectives. Regulations 4 to 13 set out the obligations that are specific to manufacturers. Electrical equipment must undergo a conformity assessment to demonstrate compliance with the essential requirements of the Regulations. Manufacturers must ensure that electrical equipment has been designed and manufactured in accordance with the principal elements of the safety objectives set out in Schedule 1, having a conformity assessment procedure carried out before the equipment is placed on the market, affixing the CE marking and labelling the equipment. Regulation 14 refers to authorised representatives who may be appointed by manufacturers to perform certain tasks on their behalf. Regulations 15 to 24 set out the obligations that are specific to importers. These obligations include ensuring that they are not placing on the market electrical equipment which is not in conformity with the principal elements of the safety objectives, checking that the manufacturer has carried out a conformity assessment procedure and labelled the electrical equipment correctly and indicating on the electrical equipment the name and address of the importer. Regulations 25 to 31 set out the obligations that are specific to distributors. These obligations include acting with due care to ensure that electrical equipment is in conformity with Part 2 and checking that the equipment bears the CE marking and is labelled correctly. They also include an obligation to ensure that, while it is the distributor’s responsibility, the storage and transport of the equipment does not jeopardise its conformity with the essential safety requirements. Regulations 32 to 35 set out obligations that all economic operators have. These obligations include making sure, before making electrical equipment available on the United Kingdom market, that the EU declaration of conformity is in English. They also include an obligation to identify other economic operators in the supply chain, and a prohibition on the improper use of the CE marking. Regulation 35 sets out a requirement for a safe connection where electrical equipment is intended for use in the United Kingdom. Part 3 sets out provisions concerning conformity with harmonised and other standards, declarations of conformity and CE marking for low voltage electrical equipment. Part 4 sets out provisions for market surveillance and enforcement. Regulation 40 identifies the market surveillance authorities which have an obligation to enforce the Regulations. Regulation 42 and Schedules 3 to 5 provide for the enforcement powers which the enforcing authorities are to have. Regulation 50 provides for the contravention of provisions of these Regulations to be an offence. Regulation 51 sets out the penalties that are to apply for offences under these Regulations. Part 5 covers transitional provisions and consequential amendments. The 1994 Regulations will continue to apply to electrical equipment placed on the market before the commencement date. Regulation 64 introduces Schedule 7 which makes consequential amendments. A transposition note and full impact assessment of the impact that these Regulations will have on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector are available from the Single Market Product Safety Team, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET and are also published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside these Regulations 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.

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits 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