UK Offence Report

Voluntary homes and registered children’s homes not be be used for restricting liberty

regulation 13(2) of The Children (Secure Accommodation) 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

2 The contravention of, or failure to comply with, the provisions of paragraph (1), without reasonable excuse, shall be an offence against these Regulations.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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

or failure to comply with, the provisions of paragraph (1), without reasonable excuse, shall be an offence against these Regulations.

What would breach regulation 13(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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Children (Secure Accommodation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. 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
10 October 1996
In force from
4 November 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 supplement the provisions in Article 44 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (“the Order”) which govern the restriction of liberty of children who are being looked after by authorities. The Regulations provide for approval by the Department of Health and Social Services to the placement of a child aged under 13 in secure accommodation (regulation 2); the children to whom Article 44 of the Order shall not apply (regulation 3); the making of applications to court (regulation 4); the duty to give notification of placements in authority homes (regulation 5); provision as to the maximum period in accommodation for restricting liberty without court authority (regulation 6); the maximum initial period of authorisation by any court (regulation 7); further periods of authorisation by a court (regulation 8); the duty to notify parents and others in relation to children in secure accommodation (regulation 9); the appointment of persons to review placements in secure accommodation (regulation 10); the review of placements in secure accommodation (regulation 11); the records to be kept in respect of a child in secure accommodation (regulation 12); and the prohibition of the use of accommodation for restricting liberty in voluntary homes and registered children’s homes and breach thereof (regulation 13). Articles 44(3) and (8), 45(1) and (2), 73(1) and (2)(d), 89(1), (2)(f) and (3), and 105(1), (2)(f) and (3) of the Order are the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made. They were brought into operation on 18th July 1996, by virtue of Article 2(1) of, and Schedule 1 to, the Children (1995 Order) (Commencement No. 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 297 (C. 17)).

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 0.88.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.88 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