UK Offence Report

Directions in preparation for a hearing and determination of preliminary issues

regulation 31(4) of Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

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

4 A direction shall—

a include

a statement of the possible consequences for the appeal or the claim, as provided by regulation 35, of

a party’s failure to comply with the requirement within the time allowed by the President;

b if made under regulation 34, contain

a reference to the fact that, under Article 23(5) and (6) of the 1996 Order in respect of an appeal or under Article 23(7) and (8) of the 2005 Order in respect of

a claim, any person who without reasonable cause fails to comply with requirements regarding disclosure or inspection of documents shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale; and

c unless the person to whom the direction is addressed had an opportunity to object to the direction, or he gave his written consent to the application for it, contain

a statement to the effect that the person may apply to the President under regulation

32 to vary or set aside the direction.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 31(4)?

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 cause fails to comply with requirements regarding disclosure or inspection of documents.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 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
£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
15 July 2005
In force from
1 September 2005
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 make provision in relation to the establishment of and regulate the procedure of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal established by Article 21 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (Northern Ireland) Order 2005. The Regulations make provision for and regulate the procedures for both appeals under Part II to and Schedule 2 of the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, and claims in respect of disability discrimination in schools under Article 21 and 22. They revoke the Special Educational Needs Tribunal Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997, subject to a saving provision for existing appeals. The procedures are set out in Parts II to VI of the Regulations and broadly follow, with modification, the procedures for special educational needs appeals under Part II to and Schedule 2 of the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

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