Procuring drink for drunken person

article 35(3) of The Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1987

Status not determined
Strict liability
Summary only
Alcohol licensing, gambling, smoke-free and public health

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

3 If any person without reasonable excuse brings
a drunken person into premises of
a registered club he 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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: 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 person 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

3 If any person without reasonable excuse brings a drunken person into premises of a registered club he shall be guilty of an offence.

What would breach article 35(3)?

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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1987.

Penalty

Mode of trial: Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine: £5,000
Standard scale: Level 5
Maximum prison (summary): 6 months

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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.

Health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 February 2016
Covers breaches of duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations made under it, and food safety and food hygiene offences. Sentencing turns on culpability and on the seriousness and likelihood of harm risked, not only on the harm that happened.
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: Status not determined
Made: 21 July 1987
In force from: Not determined
Extent: Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

This Order— a provides for clubs to be registered by a county court and establishes a procedure for these registrations; b provides for general permitted hours in registered clubs similar to the permitted hours in licensed premises; c makes it an offence for a person under the age of 18 to be in the bar of a registered club or to be supplied with intoxicating liquor; d makes it an offence to be drunk or to permit drunkenness in a registered club; e makes new provision in respect of the right of the police to enter and inspect club premises; and f otherwise consolidates the statutory provisions relating to the registration of clubs.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Registration Of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Commons · 14 July 1987 · The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr. Richard Needham)
I beg to move, That the draft Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1987, which was laid before this House on 2nd July, be approved. This is the second and, I hope, less controversial part of the package of reforms. However, it is equally important and I am glad that this measure had the support of the Assembly when it was debated there. The order repeals the existing Northern Ireland law contained in the…
Registration Of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Commons · 14 July 1987
Resolved, That the draft Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1987, which was laid before this House on 2nd July, be approved.
Licensing Law (Northern Ireland) Commons · 7 November 1996 · Mr. Moss
We are considering two orders, which together form a package of reforms. One deals with the licensing of premises such as public houses, hotels and restaurants, the other with the registration of private clubs in Northern Ireland to permit them to supply alcohol to members. The orders consolidate, with amendments, existing Northern Ireland law in the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1990 and the Registration of…
Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 Lords · 26 November 1996
These orders consolidate, with amendments, existing Northern Ireland law which is contained in the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1990 and the Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1987—by this evening's standards quite recent legislation. A wide ranging review of the laws on alcohol began in December 1992 with a review of the laws on registered clubs. A review of the licensing laws was instigated in…

Other offences in the same instrument

Prohibition of supply, etc., of intoxicating liquor outside permitted hoursarticle 20(2)
Prohibition of supply, etc., of intoxicating liquor outside permitted hoursarticle 20(2)(c)
Closing of bar outside permitted hoursarticle 21(2)
Penalty for supplying or keeping intoxicating liquor in unregistered clubsarticle 27(1)
Penalty for supplying or keeping intoxicating liquor in unregistered clubsarticle 27(2)
Penalty for supplying or keeping intoxicating liquor in unregistered clubsarticle 27(2)(b)
Unlawful supply and consumption, etc., in registered clubsarticle 28(2)
Unlawful supply and consumption, etc., in registered clubsarticle 28(2)(c)
Unlawful supply and consumption, etc., in registered clubsarticle 28(3)
Presence of unauthorised persons in certain parts of club premisesarticle 29(1)
Presence of unauthorised persons in certain parts of club premisesarticle 29(2)
Functions in registered clubsarticle 30(3)

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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Alcohol licensing, gambling, smoke-free and public healthOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1987