UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 10(1) of The Water Resources (Control of Pollution) (Silage, Slurry and Agriculture Fuel Oil) (Wales) Regulations 2010 (revoked)

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 A person who contravenes regulation 3(1), 3(4), 4(1), 5(1) or 7(5) of these Regulations is guilty of an offence and liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 10(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 an offence is committed where a person contravenes regulation 3(1), 3(4), 4(1), 5(1) or 7(5) of these Regulations.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Water Resources (Control of Pollution) (Silage, Slurry and Agriculture Fuel Oil) (Wales) Regulations 2010, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
26 May 2010
In force from
18 June 2010
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 revoke and replace the Control of Pollution (Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil) Regulations 1991, S.I. 1991/324 (as amended) in so far as S.I. 1991/324 (as amended) relates to Wales. These Regulations have been notified to the European Commission in accordance with the European Parliament and Council Directive 98/34/EC laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (OJ No L 204, 21.7.98, p.37), as amended. Regulation 3 requires any person who has custody or control of silage that is being made or stored to keep such silage in silos that meet the requirements of Schedule 1 and to take precautions and other steps for preventing pollution of waters. Regulations 4 and 5 require any person who has custody or control of slurry or fuel oil to store such slurry or fuel oil in a slurry storage system or fuel storage tank that meets the requirements of Schedules 2 or 3. Regulation 6 provides exemptions from the requirements of the Regulations for silo, slurry storage systems and fuel storage tanks. Regulations 7 and 8 allow the Environment Agency to serve a notice requiring the carrying out of works or precautions to be taken for reducing the risk of pollution to controlled waters and also provide an appeal process against such notices. Regulation 9 requires the Environment Agency to be notified of certain works to a silo, slurry storage system or fuel storage area. Regulation 10 provides that contravention of certain regulations is a criminal offence. The Regulations update the standards applicable to the design and construction of silos and slurry storage systems. Copies of the documents published by the British Standards Institution referred to in the Regulations may be obtained from any of the sales outlets of the British Standards Institution, by post from the British Standards Institution, Customer Services, 389 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 4AL, by telephone on 020 8996 9001, or by email to orders@bsi-global.com . A full Regulatory Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private and voluntary sectors is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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