UK Offence Report

Amendment to regulation 41

regulation 8 of The Control of Mercury (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

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

8 For regulation 41(5) substitute—

5 A person commits an offence if the person fails to produce

a document or record—

a for DAERA, where DAERA is performing

a function pursuant to regulation 6, or

b for the Agency, NRW or SEPA, where that body (as the case may be) is performing

a function under the Mercury Regulation. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 keep or produce records
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 8?

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. Keeping no record at all of something the instrument requires to be recorded under the Control of Mercury (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.
  2. Keeping records, but discarding them before the end of the retention period the instrument sets.
  3. Being unable to produce a record on request because it is held somewhere it cannot be got at in the time allowed.

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
17 December 2020
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 conferred by sections 8(1) and 8C(1) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16)— a in part in order to address failures of retained EU law to operate effectively and other deficiencies (in particular under section 8(2)(a), (b), (c) and (g)) arising from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and b in part in order to implement the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, which forms part of the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (agreed on 19th October 2019). These Regulations make amendments to legislation in the field of environmental protection and, in particular, amend legislation relating to the regulation of mercury. Part 2 amends subordinate legislation. Part 3 amends the agreement on the European Economic Area. Part 4 amends other legislation. Part 5 revokes and amends subordinate legislation. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public 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