UK Offence Report

Miscellaneous amendments

regulation 9(6) of The Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Amendment) 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

6 For regulation 41(1) (offence) substitute— 1 A person who fails to comply with the requirements of any of the following regulations commits an offence— a regulations 7 and 8; b regulations 10 to 13; c regulations 15 to 35; d regulation 37(3). .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 9(6)?

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 fails to comply with the requirements of any of the following regulations.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Nitrate Pollution Prevention (Amendment) Regulations 2016 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
6 December 2016
In force from
31 December 2016
Extent
E

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 Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/668) (“the 2015 Regulations”) which apply to England. Regulation 3 ensures the 2015 Regulations refer to a new map of the revised Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (“NVZ”) designations for the period 2017 to 2020 to which the rules contained in the 2015 Regulations apply. Regulation 4 makes some changes to the procedure for publicising and notifying the revised NVZ designations for this period. Regulation 5 and the Schedule insert transitional arrangements for those newly in a designated NVZ so that the rules will not apply immediately. Regulation 6 inserts requirements about record-keeping for those newly in NVZs. These requirements already applied to those previously in NVZs under the regulations in force before the 2015 Regulations. Regulation 7 makes consequential changes to regulation 34. Regulation 8 amends arrangements for applying for a derogation under regulation 36, in particular to extend the period during which an application for 2017 can be made. Regulation 9 makes further amendments, including to amend some definitions, remove spent transitional provisions, change the date by which the 2015 Regulations must be reviewed, and clarify regulation 24 and the offence provision. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.

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 “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