UK Offence Report

1 A person who contravenes the requirements of regulation 7(8) is guilty of an offence.

regulation 12(1) of The Employer’s Contributions Re-imbursement 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 A person who contravenes the requirements of regulation 7(8) is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 12(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes the requirements of regulation 7(8).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Employer’s Contributions Re-imbursement Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
6 February 1996
In force from
6 April 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 provide for employers to make deductions from their social security contributions payments in prescribed circumstances where they employ a qualifying employee. Regulation 1 contains definitions. Regulation 2 sets out the circumstances in which a person, who would not otherwise satisfy the condition in Article 29(1) of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (“the Order”) that immediately before beginning his employment with that employer he had been entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance for a continuous period of not less than two years, will be treated as satisfying such condition. Regulation 3 sets out the circumstances in which a person, who would not otherwise satisfy the condition in Article 29(2)(a) of the Order that immediately before beginning his employment with that employer he had been unemployed for a continuous period of not less than two years, will be treated as satisfying such condition. Regulation 4 sets out the prescribed description of a person for the purposes of Article 29(2)(c) of the Order. Regulation 5 provides that an employer must employ a person who is a qualifying employee for a continuous period of at least 13 weeks and have obtained a deductions certificate in order to make deductions in accordance with these Regulations and sets out how the amount which an employer is entitled to deduct is to be calculated. Regulation 6 provides for the making of deductions in the case of certain mariners. Regulation 7 provides for an application to be made to the Department of Health and Social Services (“the Department”) for a deductions certificate before making any deduction and sets out requirements for the form of such an application and the period within which it shall be made to the Department. Regulation 8 provides that where an employer is entitled to deduct amounts determined in accordance with regulation 5 or 6 that such deductions may be made by one or more deductions from the employer’s contributions payments except in specified circumstances. Regulation 9 provides that where an employer is unable to deduct in whole or in part an amount because it exceeds the amount of his contributions payments paid in an income tax period the Department or the Commissioners of Inland Revenue acting on its behalf shall on request in writing by the employer pay him such amount. Regulation 10 restricts the right to make deductions where an employee is a qualifying employee in relation to more than one employer at the same time. Regulation 11 provides for employers to be treated as one where the earnings are aggregated by virtue of regulation 12(1)(a) of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1979 (“the Contributions Regulations”). Regulation 12 makes it an offence to contravene the requirements of regulation 7(8). Regulation 13 amends certain provisions in Schedule 1 to the Contributions Regulations by referring to these Regulations. Articles 2(2) and (4) and 36(2) of the Order, two of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made, are brought into operation on 5th February 1996 by virtue of the Jobseekers (1995 Order) (Commencement No. 1) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 26 (C. 3)). Articles 29 and 35(3) and (7) of the Order, the remaining enabling provisions, are brought into operation, for the purpose only of authorising the making of regulations on 5th February 1996 and for all other purposes on 6th April 1996, by virtue of that Commencement Order. As these Regulations are made before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the coming into operation of those provisions they are accordingly exempt, by virtue of section 150(5)(a) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c. 8), from reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee.

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 0.92.

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