Medical and dental inspection, etc., of school children and young persons

article 9(2) of Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972

• In force
• Strict liability
• Summary only
• Miscellaneous

The instrument creating this offence has not been revoked so far as the data shows.

What the provision says

2 For the purpose of securing the proper medical and dental inspection of persons such as are mentioned in paragraph (1)( a) the Ministry may require the parents of any such persons to submit the persons for medical or dental inspection in accordance with arrangements made by the Ministry, and any parent who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any such requirement shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding £50.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 parent

Conduct

breaching the provision

Fault element

Strict liability

Burden of proof

An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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 parent 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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

arrangements made by the Ministry, and any parent who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any such requirement shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50.

What would breach article 9(2)?

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 parent fails without reasonable excuse to comply with any such requirement.
2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court

Maximum fine

£50

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.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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

In force

Made

14 August 1972

In force from

Not determined

Extent

N.I.

How this was established: read from the revised (currently in force) text.

Other offences in the same instrument

• SCHEDULE 10SCHEDULE 10
• SCHEDULE 15SCHEDULE 15
• Failure to maintainarticle 103(1)
• Orders, regulations and directionsarticle 107(2)
• Power to enter on landsarticle 49(3)
• Power to enter on landsarticle 49(4)
• Power of inspectionarticle 50(7)
• Studies for improving economy, etc. in servicesarticle 92B(8)
• Any person who wilfully disobeys, or obstructs the execution of, an order under paragraph 2 or 3 shall be…paragraph 10 of SCHEDULE 6

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting

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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• MiscellaneousOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 1972