UK Offence Report

1 Any person who— a fails to discharge a duty to which he is subject by virtue of Articles 4 to 8; b…

article 31(1) of Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 Any person who— a fails to discharge a duty to which he is subject by virtue of Articles 4 to 8; b contravenes Article 9 or 10; c contravenes any health and safety regulations or any requirement or prohibition imposed under any such regulations (including any requirement or prohibition to which he is subject by virtue of the terms of or any condition or restriction attached to any licence, approval, exemption or other authority issued, given or granted under the regulations); d contravenes any requirement imposed by or under regulations under Article 16 or intentionally obstructs any person in the exercise of his powers under that Article; e contravenes any requirement imposed by an inspector under Article 22 or 27; f prevents or attempts to prevent any other person from appearing before an inspector or from answering any question to which an inspector may by virtue of Article 22(2) require an answer; g contravenes any requirement or prohibition imposed by an improvement notice or a prohibition notice (including any such notice as modified on appeal); h intentionally obstructs an inspector in the exercise or performance of his powers or duties or obstructs a customs officer in the exercise of his powers under Article 27A; i contravenes any requirement imposed by a notice under Article 29(1); j uses or discloses any information in contravention of Article. . . 30; k makes a statement which he knows to be false or recklessly makes a statement which is false where the statement is made— i in purported compliance with a requirement to furnish any information imposed by or under any of the relevant statutory provisions; or ii for the purpose of obtaining the issue of a document under any of the relevant statutory provisions to himself or another person; l intentionally makes a false entry in any register, book, notice or other document required by or under any of the relevant statutory provisions to be kept, served or given or, with intent to deceive, makes use of any such entry which he knows to be false; m with intent to deceive,. . . uses a document issued or authorised to be issued under any of the relevant statutory provisions or required for any purpose thereunder or makes or has in his possession a document so closely resembling any such document as to be calculated to deceive; n falsely pretends to be an inspector; o fails to comply with an order made by a court under Article 39; shall be guilty of an offence.

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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (for the purpose of obtaining, intentionally, recklessly, with intent to).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: intentionally, with intent to, recklessly, for the purpose of obtaining.

What would breach article 31(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Statistics of Trade and Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 1988
Revoked on
24 May 1988
Made
25 July 1978
In force from
Not determined
Extent
N.I.

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

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