UK Offence Report

Penalties for non-compliance

regulation 5(3) of The Insurance Accounts Directive (Miscellaneous Insurance Undertakings) 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

3 If a qualifying body fails to comply with regulation 4( 1) the body and every person who, at the time when the failure takes place, is a director of the body 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 5(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.

  1. Not doing what the provision requires under the Insurance Accounts Directive (Miscellaneous Insurance Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

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
2 November 1994
In force from
16 December 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 as respects Northern Ireland Council Directive 91/674/EEC (O.J. No. L374 31.12.91 pages 7 to 31) on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings, in so far as that Directive is applicable to bodies corporate or unincorporate other than (a) bodies corporate to which Part VIII of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (“the 1986 Order”) applies and (b) friendly societies. (The Companies (1986 Order) (Insurance Companies Accounts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (S.R. 1994 No. )) implement Directive 91/674/EEC in respect of bodies corporate to which Part VIII of the 1986 Order applies;. The directors of qualifying bodies for the purposes of the Regulations are required by regulation 3 to prepare annual accounts and an annual report, and to obtain an auditors' report on such accounts, in accordance with the provisions of Part VIII of the 1986 Order which are specified in paragraph (3) and are applicable to insurance companies and groups. Regulation 4 requires the accounts prepared under regulation 3 to be made available for inspection without charge at the qualifying body’s head office in Northern Ireland. Regulation 5 makes provision in relation to offences for failure to comply with the Regulations. A person guilty of such an offence is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 52,000. Regulation 6 and the Schedule make certain modifications of legislation applicable to industrial and provident societies which prepare accounts under the Regulations. Regulation 7 permits the directors of a qualifying body not to prepare annual accounts and an annual report (and obtain an auditors' report on the accounts) under the Regulations for financial years commencing before 23rd December 1994. This transitional provision mirrors the transitional provision in the Companies (1986 Order) (Insurance Companies Accounts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994. A Compliance Cost Assessment of the impact that the Regulations will have a business is available from Registry of Companies, IDB House, 64 Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 4JX.

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