The Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Kyoto Protocol Registry) Regulations 2021

Amendments to Title 5 of the Registries Regulation 2013

8.—(1) Title 5 (common technical provisions) of the Registries Regulation 2013 is amended as follows.

(2) Omit Article 91.

(3) For Article 92 substitute—

“Article 92 Helpdesk

The national administrator must provide assistance and support to account holders and account representatives in relation to the Registry through a helpdesk.”.

(4) Omit Article 93.

(5) For Article 94 substitute—

“Article 94 Accessing accounts in the Registry

If the security of the credentials of an authorised representative has been compromised, the authorised representative must inform the national administrator, who may suspend access to the relevant account.”.

(6) Omit Article 95.

(7) In Article 96—

(a) in paragraph 1—

(i) for “Commission” substitute “Secretary of State”;

(ii) omit “instruct the central administrator to”;

(iii) for “Union Registry or the EUTL”, in each place in which it occurs, substitute “Registry”;

(iv) for “it” substitute “the Secretary of State”;

(v) omit “, which includes the back-up facilities referred to in Article 91”;

(b) omit paragraph 2;

(c) in paragraph 3—

(i) for “a national administrator” substitute “the national administrator”;

(ii) for “shall”, in the first place in which it occurs, substitute “must”;

(iii) omit “the central administrator and”;

(iv) omit “The central administrator shall inform all national administrators as soon as possible.”;

(d) in paragraph 4—

(i) for “shall”, in both places in which it occurs, substitute “must”;

(ii) for “EUTL’s” substitute “Registry’s”.

(8) For Article 97 substitute—

“Article 97 Suspension of access to Kyoto units in the case of a suspected fraudulent transaction

The national administrator, acting on request of the Secretary of State, may suspend access to Kyoto units in the Registry for a maximum period of four weeks if it suspects that the Kyoto units have been the subject of a transaction constituting fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption or other serious crime.”.

(9) Omit Articles 98 to 99a.

(10) For the heading of Section 3 (automated checking, recording and completing of processes) substitute—

“Completing of processes”.

(11) Omit Articles 100 to 103.

(12) In Article 104—

(a) in paragraph 1—

(i) omit “in accordance with Article 7(1)”;

(ii) for “EUTL” substitute “Registry”;

(b) omit paragraphs 2 and 3.

(13) Omit Section 4.

(14) In Article 107—

(a) in paragraph 1—

(i) for “central administrator and Member States shall” substitute “Secretary of State and national administrator must”;

(ii) for “Union Registry, the EUTL and other KP registries only store and process” substitute “Registry only stores and processes”;

(iii) omit “, Tables VI-I and VI-II of Annex VI, Table VII-I of Annex VII,”;

(b) for paragraph 2 substitute—

“2.   The Secretary of State and the national administrator must ensure that no special categories of personal data (within the meaning given in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679(1), as amended from time to time) are recorded in the Registry.”;

(c) in paragraph 3, for “central administrator and Member States shall” substitute “Secretary of State and national administrator must”.

(15) Omit Articles 108 and 109.

(16) For Article 110 substitute—

“Article 110 Confidentiality

1.   Information held in the Registry, including the holding of accounts, all transactions made, the unique unit identification code of the allowances and the unique numeric value of the unit serial number of the Kyoto units held or affected by a transaction, must be considered confidential except as otherwise required by domestic or international law, including relevant international climate law.

2.   The national administrator may provide information held in the Registry to the following entities—

(a) a designated national authority;

(b) the European Anti-fraud Office of the European Commission;

(c) law enforcement authorities, tax authorities or insolvency services in the United Kingdom;

(d) international law enforcement authorities, tax authorities or insolvency services;

(e) the UNFCCC;

(f) the administrator of a registry connected to the UNFCCC International Transaction Log.

3.   Information may be provided to the entities referred to in paragraph 2 upon their request to the national administrator if such requests are justified and necessary for the purposes of investigation, detection, prosecution, tax administration or enforcement, auditing and financial supervision of fraud involving Kyoto units, or of money laundering, terrorism financing, other serious crime, or a market manipulation offence for which the accounts in the Registry may be an instrument.

4.   An entity receiving information in accordance with paragraph 3 must ensure that the information received is only used for the purposes stated in the request in accordance with paragraph 3 and is not made available deliberately or accidentally to persons not involved in the intended purpose of the information use. This provision does not preclude these entities from making the information available to other entities listed in paragraph 2, if this is necessary for the purposes stated in the request made in accordance with paragraph 3.

5.   Upon their request, the national administrator may provide access to transaction information which does not allow the direct identification of specific persons to the entities referred to in paragraph 2 for the purpose of looking for suspicious transaction patterns. Entities with such access may notify suspicious transaction patterns to other entities listed in paragraph 2.

6.   The national administrator may decide to notify to law enforcement and tax authorities all transactions that involve a number of units above the number determined by the national administrator and to notify any account that is involved in a number of transactions within a period that is above a number determined by the national administrator.

7.   The national administrator may not require account holders to submit price information concerning Kyoto units.

8.   In this Article, “a market manipulation offence” means an offence under Part 7 of the Financial Services Act 2012(2).”.

(17) After Article 110, insert—

“Article 110a Provision of information

1.   For the purpose mentioned in paragraph 4, the national administrator or the Secretary of State (a “relevant body”) may, by notice, require a person (“P”) to furnish the relevant body with such information as is specified in the notice.

2.   A notice under this paragraph must specify—

(a) the form in which information is to be provided;

(b) the period within which, or time at which, the information must be provided.

3.   The information which P may be required to furnish by a notice under paragraph 1 includes information, which, although it is not in P’s possession or would not otherwise come into P’s possession, is information which it is reasonable to require P to compile for the purpose of complying with the notice.

4.   The purpose referred to in paragraph 1 is the performance of the relevant body’s functions.

5.   A relevant body must not disclose or publish any information it has received under paragraph 1 except where—

(a) disclosure or publication is—

(i) required by this Regulation or otherwise by law;

(ii) necessary for the performance of the relevant body’s functions; or

(iii) made with the consent of the person by or on behalf of whom the information was provided; or

(b) disclosure is between the relevant bodies.

6.   The Secretary of State may use any information held or obtained for the purposes of this Regulation, and may share such information with other government bodies, for the purpose of preparing and publishing national energy and emissions statistics, including the preparation and publication of a national inventory.

7.   In this Article—

(a) “national inventory” means the estimation, under Article 4(1)(a) of the UNFCCC, of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases by sources and removals of all greenhouse gases by sinks not controlled by the Montreal Protocol;

(b) “functions” means functions—

(i) under this Regulation; or

(ii) related to compliance with relevant international climate law.

Article 110b Right of appeal regarding Article 110a notices

1.   Subject to paragraph 2, a person who is aggrieved by a notice served on them under Article 110a(1) may appeal against the notice to the First-tier Tribunal.

2.   An appeal under paragraph 1 may not be made to the extent that the notice implements a direction given by—

(a) the Secretary of State under section 40 of the Environment Act 1995(3);

(b) the First-tier Tribunal under this Regulation.

3.   The bringing of an appeal under paragraph 1 suspends the effect of the notice pending the final determination or withdrawal of the appeal.

4.   Subject to paragraph 5, in determining an appeal under paragraph 1, the First-tier Tribunal may—

(a) affirm the notice;

(b) quash the notice; or

(c) vary any of the terms of the notice.

5.   The First-tier Tribunal may not make a determination that would result in a notice which could not otherwise have been made under this Regulation.

Article 110c Right of appeal regarding national administrator decisions

1.   This Article applies to an appeal against a decision under Article 22(3), 24(6), 25(3), 33(5) or 34(6)

2.   An appeal may be made to the First-tier Tribunal.

3.   The bringing of an appeal does not suspend the effect of the decision pending the final determination or withdrawal of the appeal.

4.   Subject to paragraph 5, in determining an appeal, the First-tier Tribunal may give directions to the national administrator as to the exercise of its functions under this Regulation.

5.   The First-tier Tribunal may not make a determination that would result in a decision which could not otherwise have been made under this Regulation.

Article 110d Guidance

1.   The Secretary of State may issue guidance to the national administrator with respect to the carrying out of any of its functions—

(a) under this Regulation; or

(b) related to compliance with relevant international climate law.

2.   The national administrator must have regard to any guidance issued under paragraph 1.

Article 110e Notices

Annex 8a (notices) has effect.”.

(18) Omit Articles 111 and 112.

(1)

EUR 2016/679, amended by S.I. 2019/419.

(2)

2012 c. 21. Part 7 was amended by S.I. 2016/680, regulation 15 and S.I. 2018/1297, regulation 8.

(3)

1995 c. 25. Section 40 was amended for Wales by the Natural Resources Body for Wales (Functions) Order 2013/755 (W.90), Schedule 2, paragraph 371; for Scotland by the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 asp 3, Schedule 3, paragraph 43(6); and for England, Scotland and Wales by S.I. 2019/458, regulation 3(2).