UK Offence Report

16 Where a person on whom a stop notice is served does not comply with it, the person is guilty of an…

paragraph 16 of SCHEDULE 1 of The Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc.) (England) Regulations 2023

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

16 Where a person on whom a stop notice is served does not comply with it, the person is guilty of an offence and liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months, or both; or b on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 paragraph 16 of SCHEDULE 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 Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc.) (England) Regulations 2023.

Penalty

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

'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

The Ministry of Justice records offences under this instrument against offence code 9610 — 09610 - Fail to comply with stop notice under Environmental Protection (Plastic Plates etc. and Polystyrene Containers etc.) (England) Regulations 2023. 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
7 September 2023
In force from
1 October 2023
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, which apply in relation to England, prohibit persons from supplying or offering to supply certain plastic or polystyrene items in the course of a business. Part 2 prohibits the supply of single-use plastic plates, trays or bowls, balloon sticks and cutlery. It also prohibits the supply of single-use polystyrene food or drink containers and cups. Breach of these prohibitions is an offence (regulations 3 to 5), subject to the mutual recognition principle in the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 where applicable. The United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 (Exclusions from Market Access Principles: Single-Use Plastics) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/857) exempt most of these items from the market access principles, but not trays and bowls. A civil sanctions regime is also introduced to enable regulators to impose a range of civil sanctions (regulation 9 and Schedule 1). These are fixed monetary penalties, compliance notices, stop notices and enforcement undertakings. The Regulations make provision for the procedure relating to these sanctions and the available appeal mechanisms. Failure to comply with a stop notice is an offence (paragraph 16 of Schedule 1). All appeals relating to a civil sanction are to the First-tier Tribunal. Regulations 8 and 10 provide for enforcement officers to have powers of entry to carry out the necessary investigations in order to determine whether an offence has been committed. Regulation 11 provides for the publication of information on enforcement action taken by regulators. Regulation 12 provides that guidance relating to the use of civil sanctions must be prepared and consulted on, and specifies information to be included in such guidance. Regulation 13 contains provision for review of the Regulations. Regulators are able to recover the costs of enforcement (paragraph 27 of Schedule 1) in the case of fixed monetary penalties, compliance notices and stop notices. Part 6 and Schedule 2 make amendments to the Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (England) Regulations 2017 to change the provisions for civil sanctions to enable regulators to impose fixed instead of variable monetary penalties. Schedule 3 makes amendments to the Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton Buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020 for that purpose, and also amends the definition of “relevant device” in those Regulations in consequence of changes to the Medical Devices Regulations 2002. A full impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sectors is available from the Waste Team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF, and is also available together with these Regulations 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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of 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