Penalties for non-compliance with enforcement notice

article 72(5) of The Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991

• Status not determined
• Strict liability
• Either way
• Housing, planning, heritage and land

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

5 Where, by virtue of an enforcement notice,

a use of land is required to be discontinued, or any conditions or limitations are required to be complied with in respect of

a use of land or in respect of the carrying out of operations thereon, then if any person uses the land or causes or permits it to be used or carries out those operations or causes or permits them to be carried out, in contravention of the notice—

a he shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale; and

b if the use is continued after the conviction, he shall be guilty of

a further offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding one-tenth of level

5 on the standard scale for each day on which the use is so continued.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

contravening a requirement of the instrument

Fault element

Strict liability

Burden of proof

No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach article 72(5)?

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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991, whatever the reason for doing it.
2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court

Maximum fine

£5,000

Standard scale

Level 5

Maximum prison (summary)

Not determined

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.

• Environmental offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales · in force from 1 July 2014

  Covers unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste, illegal discharges to air, land and water, and the equivalent offences committed by organisations. It is the guideline that introduced turnover bands for corporate fines, so the size of the defendant company is a starting point rather than a mitigating detail.

• Imposition of community and custodial sentences: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  When a community order or custody is justified at all, and the presumption against short custodial sentences.

• 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 May 1991

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 note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order consolidates the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 and the provisions amending that Order.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

• Supplementary provisions as to powers of entryarticle 122(2)
• Information as to estates in landarticle 125(3)
• Information as to estates in landarticle 125(4)
• Notification of applications to certain personsarticle 22(6)
• Notice requiring planning applicationarticle 23(5)
• Control of works for demolition, alteration or extension of listed buildingsarticle 44(1)
• Control of works for demolition, alteration or extension of listed buildingsarticle 44(5)
• Acts causing or likely to result in damage to listed buildingsarticle 49(1)
• Applications for hazardous substances consentarticle 54(3)
• Subject to this Part, if there is a contravention of hazardous substances control, the appropriate person…article 61(1)
• Penalties for contravention of tree preservation ordersarticle 66(1)
• Penalties for contravention of tree preservation ordersarticle 66(2)

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.
• The Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Housing, planning, heritage and landOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 1991