UK Offence Report

Unauthorised persons in certain parts of club premises

article 29(1) of The Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1996

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

1 Every person, other than— a a member of the club; b a guest of a member of the club; c a person on the premises of the club for purposes connected with his trade, profession or employment (including employment by the club); who is found in any part of the premises of a registered club in which intoxicating liquor is usually supplied, kept for supply or consumed shall, unless he proves that he is there for a lawful purpose, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

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

The defence, as drafted

uor is usually supplied, kept for supply or consumed shall, unless he proves that he is there for a lawful purpose, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

What would breach article 29(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Registration of Clubs (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
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.

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
19 December 1996
In force from
20 February 1997
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.

The Order consolidates with amendments the law relating to the registration of clubs. The principal amendments are— a the waiting period for a grant of registration is reduced to 1 year; b registration is valid for up to 5 years; c clubs awaiting registration will be required to have in place, and adhere to, rules similar to those required for registered clubs and the police right of entry to registered clubs is extended to cover clubs during the waiting period; d the compulsory afternoon break in the permitted hours on Sunday is abolished; e children, in the company of an adult, are to be allowed in registered clubs which are certified in that respect; f the number of special occasion authorisations which clubs can avail themselves of is increased to 52 in any year; g the Department is enabled to make provision, by regulation, as to the form of accounts which clubs are required to produce; and h penalty points are to be attributed where a registered club or an official of a registered club is convicted of certain offences and are to be taken into account if the club or an official of the club is convicted of a further such offence.

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.

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
Confidence
0.72 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