UK Offence Report

Attendance of witnesses and discovery

paragraph 7(3) of SCHEDULE 3 of Industrial Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 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 Order any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with any such requirement shall be liable on summary conviction to

a fine and the document shall state the amount of the current maximum fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 comply with a notice or direction
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

1 Order any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with any such requirement shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine and the document shall state the amount of the current maximum fine.

What would breach paragraph 7(3) of SCHEDULE 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. On these words an offence is committed where a person without reasonable excuse fails to comply with any such requirement.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Industrial Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
24 April 1996
In force from
1 June 1996
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 revoke and replace Regulations prescribing rules of procedure for industrial tribunals in Northern Ireland. Schedule 1 contains rules of procedure which apply to all proceedings before an industrial tribunal except where separate rules of procedure made under any other statutory provision are applicable. Schedule 2 contains rules of procedure which complement those in Schedule 1 and are applicable in proceedings involving an equal value claim made under the Equal Pay Act (Northern Ireland) 1970. Schedule 3 contains rules of procedure for use in proceedings in levy appeals made under Article 24(4) of the Industrial Training (Northern Ireland) Order 1984. Schedule 4 contains rules of procedure for use in proceedings on an appeal against an improvement notice or prohibition notice made under Article 26 of the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. Schedule 5 contains rules of procedure for use in proceedings on an appeal against a non-discrimination notice under Article 68 of the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976. The Regulations make the following principal changes— a the industrial tribunals rules of procedure provide that if upon a pre-hearing review the tribunal considers that a party’s contentions have no reasonable prospect of success it may order that party to pay to the Secretary a deposit not exceeding £150 as a condition for being permitted to continue to take part in the proceedings; b in an appeal (other than a levy appeal or an appeal against a prohibition notice or improvement notice) in a case involving allegations of sexual misconduct a tribunal may make a reporting restriction order; c in appeals against an improvement notice or prohibition notice under the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 or against a non-discrimination notice under the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 an order for costs may be made against an appellant who brings or conducts proceedings in a specified manner; d service of documents may be effected by use of a document exchange provided that certain conditions are specified.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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