UK Offence Report

Transfrontier shipment of radioactive waste or spent fuel

regulation 4(1) of The Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

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 It is an offence to ship radioactive waste or spent fuel—

a from the United Kingdom to any other country; or

b from any other country into the United Kingdom, except in accordance with an authorisation granted by the competent authority under these Regulations.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an competent authority
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 an competent authority 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 4(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 it is an offence to ship radioactive waste or spent fuel— a from the United Kingdom to any other country.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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.

Prosecution figures

The Ministry of Justice records offences under this instrument against offence code 9191 — 09191 - Triable either way offences under the Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. That code may cover several provisions of the instrument, so a count against it is not a count of prosecutions under this provision alone.

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have their own code in the MoJ’s Outcomes by Offence data tool. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
31 January 2019
In force from
Not determined
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 are made in exercise of the powers in section 8(1) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) (“EUWA”) in order to address failures of retained EU law to operate effectively and other deficiencies (in particular under section 8(2)(c) of the EUWA) arising from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The Regulations extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. These Regulations revoke the Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Regulations 2008 (the “2008 Regulations”). The 2008 Regulations implemented Council Directive 96/29/Euratom laying down basic standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionizing radiation and Council Directive 2006/117/Euratom (the “2006 Directive”) on the supervision and control of shipments of radioactive waste and spent fuel. In particular, the 2008 Regulations laid down the process and procedures for authorising the import, export and transit of shipments of radioactive waste and spent fuel into and out of the European Union. In that regard, they drew a distinction between Member States of the European Union and third countries and provided that an authorisation granted at the first point of entry into the European Union was valid throughout all Member States. They also laid down a prohibition on the granting of authorisations for the shipment of radioactive waste unless the purpose of the shipment was for the processing of the waste or its return to the country of origin. These Regulations largely replicate the key provisions and penalties contained in the 2008 Regulations in the United Kingdom but, in light of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, they abolish the distinction between Member States and third countries. That means that all countries outside the United Kingdom will be treated as third countries and there is no longer any provision for the mutual recognition of authorisations. These Regulations also largely replicate the key procedural provisions contained in the 2006 Directive in order to provide the maximum continuity for operators in this sector. The standard forms referred to in regulation 9 will be prescribed by the Secretary of State outside of this instrument and hosted on the Gov.UK website as well as the websites of the competent authorities. An impact assessment has not been provided for this instrument as no, or no significant impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum has been prepared and is available alongside this instrument at 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 0.90.

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