Water Management Act 2000

If an offence against this Act or the regulations arises in relation to an access licence or approval, each co-holder of the licence or approval is taken to have committed the offence.

A co-holder of a licence or approval is not guilty of such an offence if the co-holder establishes that—

the offence was committed by some other person (whether or not another co-holder of the licence or approval), and

the other person was not associated with the co-holder at the time the offence was committed, and

the co-holder took all reasonable steps to prevent the offence from being committed.

A person is associated with a co-holder of a licence or approval for the purposes of subsection (2) (b) (but without limiting any other circumstances of association) if the person is an employee, agent, licensee, contractor or sub-contractor of the co-holder.

A person may, under this section, be proceeded against and convicted for an offence whether or not any other person has been proceeded against or convicted for the offence.