UK Offence Report

Notification of amendments to statutes of an SE and insolvency events (Articles 59(3) and 65)

regulation 80(2) of The European Public Limited-Liability Company Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 (revoked)

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 default is made in complying with paragraph (1)(a) or (b) the SE is liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 80(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 European Public Limited-Liability Company Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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
1 October 2004
In force from
8 October 2004
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 2001/86/EC supplementing the Statute for a European Company with regard to the involvement of employees (‘the Directive’) and also make provision for the parts of Council Regulation 2157/2001 on the Statute for a European Company (‘the Regulation’) which permit or oblige Member States to make certain provisions in their national law including provision for the effective application of the Regulation. The Regulation provides for the creation of a new form of public limited liability company, the Societas Europaea, known as the ‘SE’. This type of company can be formed in a number of ways set out in the Regulation. It will be governed by the Regulation and, in respect of matters where the Regulation so provides, by the law applying to public limited liability companies of the Member State in which it is, or is proposed to be, registered. The Regulation, although directly applicable in the territory of the Community, obliges Member States to make arrangements in relation to SEs which register in their territory. The Regulations therefore: make provision as to the registration and transfer of SEs and the registration authority (Part II); contain provisions required by the Regulation that Member States enact particular measures (Part V); contain provisions needed to achieve the effective application of the Regulation (Part VI); and provide for an SE to convert to a public company (Part VII). The Regulation also gives Member States the discretion as to whether to implement options set out in the Regulation and which are exercised in Part IV of the Regulations. Part III of the Regulations implements the Directive and sets out the provisions relating to employee involvement in the SE. The principal provisions are: the establishment of a special negotiating body (Chapter 2); election or appointment of UK members of the special negotiating body (Chapter 3); negotiation of an employee involvement agreement (Chapter 4); standard rules on employee involvement (Chapter 5); compliance and enforcement (Chapter 6); treatment of confidential information (Chapter 7); and employee protection (Chapter 8).

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction
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