Dated at Wellington this 1st day of December 2021.
Hon Chris Hipkins,
Minister for COVID-19 Response.
Explanatory note
This note is not part of the order, but is intended to indicate its general effect.
The purpose of the amendments is to assign each infringement offence in the principal order to 1 of the 3 infringement offence classes established by the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Infringement Offences) Regulations 2021 (the regulations) for the purposes of section 26(3) of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. The 3 classes are high risk, medium risk, and low risk and are defined by reference to how likely the offence is to lead to the transmission and spread of COVID-19.
The class that an infringement offence is assigned to determines which penalties apply to it under the regulations, with high risk offences having the highest potential infringement fees and fines for offenders and low risk offences having the lowest potential penalties.
The infringement fees (fees that can be imposed on an offender by infringement notice) for each class of infringement offence are prescribed by the regulations as follows:
Class of offence | | Fee: individual ($) | | Fee: any other person ($) |
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Low risk | | 500 | | 1,500 |
Medium risk | | 1,000 | | 4,000 |
High risk | | 4,000 | | 12,000 |
The maximum fines (fines that may be imposed instead of infringement fees if the matter goes to court) for each class of infringement offence are prescribed by the regulations as follows:
Class of offence | | Fine: individual ($) | | Fine: any other person ($) |
---|
Low risk | | 1,500 | | 4,500 |
Medium risk | | 4,000 | | 12,000 |
High risk | | 12,000 | | 15,000 |
This order also makes a correction to the schedules, to apply clause 31 of the principal order at Orange.
To continue in effect, this order must be approved by resolution of the House of Representatives before the expiry of the period described in section 16(2) of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. If this does not happen, the order is revoked on the expiry of that period.
Issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2019.
Date of notification in Gazette: 1 December 2021.
This order is administered by the Ministry of Health.