UK Offence Report

Penalties for non-compliance with regulations 4 to 6

regulation 8(2) of Partnerships and Unlimited Companies (Accounts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994

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

2 If the accounts of a qualifying partnership— a a copy of which is delivered to the registrar under regulation 5, or b which are made available for inspection under regulation 6, do not comply with the requirements of regulation 4(1), every person who, at the time when the copy was so delivered or (as the case may be) the accounts were first made available for inspection, was a member of the partnership is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £2,000.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 regulation 8(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Partnerships and Unlimited Companies (Accounts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£2,000
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.

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
30 March 1994
In force from
12 May 1994
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 Regulations.) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement Council Directive 90/605/EEC (Official Journal No. L317 of 16.11.1990, pages 60 to 62) which amends Directive 78/660/EEC on annual accounts (O.J. No. L222 of 14.8.1978, pages 11 to 31) (the Fourth EC Company Law Directive) and Directive 83/349/EEC on consolidated accounts (O.J. No. L193 of 18.7.1983, pages 1 to 17) (the Seventh EC Company Law Directive) as regards the scope of those Directives. The scope of application of the Regulations is set out in regulations 3 (qualifying partnerships) and 9 (qualifying companies). They apply, in effect, to partnerships, limited partnerships and unlimited companies all of whose members having unlimited liability are limited companies. Members of a qualifying partnership (general partners in the case of limited partnerships) are required by regulation 4 to prepare accounts and a directors' report, and to obtain an auditors' report on such accounts, in accordance with the provisions of Part VIII of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (the 1986 Order), subject to certain modifications set out in the Schedule to the Regulations. The Schedule disapplies requirements of Part VIII which do not derive from the European Community Directives on accounts. Regulations 5 and 6 contain requirements about the publication of accounts prepared under the Regulations by members of qualifying partnerships. Regulation 7 provides an exemption from the Regulations where the partnership has been dealt with in consolidated group accounts prepared by a member of the partnership established under the law of a member State of the EEC (or a parent of such a member), by the method of full or proportional consolidation or by the equity method of accounting. Regulation 8 imposes criminal penalties for failure to comply with the Regulations. Regulation 10 requires that unlimited companies which are qualifying companies deliver their accounts to the registrar of companies (they are already required to prepare accounts under Part VIII of the 1986 Order). Regulation 11 imposes additional disclosure requirements in the notes to the accounts of companies which are members of qualifying partnerships or qualifying companies. Regulation 12 permits the members of a qualifying partnership not to prepare accounts and a directors' report (and obtain an auditor’s report on the accounts) under the Regulations for financial years commencing on a date prior to 23rd December 1994.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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