UK Offence Report

1 A contravention or failure to comply with any of the provisions of regulations 3 to 35 shall be an offence.

regulation 39(1) of The Adult Placement Agencies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

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 contravention or failure to comply with any of the provisions of regulations 3 to 35 shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 39(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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Adult Placement Agencies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

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
29 March 2007
In force from
30 April 2007
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 are made under the Health and Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement and Regulation) (Northern Ireland ) Order 2003 (“the Order”), and apply in relation to adult placement agencies. Part II of the Order establishes the Northern Ireland Health and Personal Social Services Regulation and Improvement Authority (“the Regulation and Improvement Authority”) and Part III provides for the registration and inspection of establishments and agencies by the Regulation and Improvement Authority. The Order also provides powers to make regulations governing the conduct of establishments and agencies. The Health and Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement and Regulation) (2003 Order) (Specified Agency) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007 specified adult placement agencies for purposes of regulation under the Order. In these regulations: Regulation 2 includes the definition of an adult placement agency and an adult placement carer. Regulation 3 provides that each agency must prepare a statement of purpose in relation to the matters set out in Schedule 1 and a service users guide to the agency must be produced (Regulation 4). Regulations 7 to 11 make provisions about the fitness of persons carrying on and managing an agency and require satisfactory information to be obtained in relation to the matters specified in Schedule 2. In the case of an organisation it must nominate a responsible individual in respect of whom this information must be available (Regulation 7). Regulation 8 prescribes the circumstances where a manager must be appointed in respect of the agency, and Regulation 9 makes provision concerning the fitness of the manager. Regulation 10 imposes general requirements in relation to the proper conduct of the agency, and indeed for appropriate training. Part III of the Regulations (12 to 19) make provision as to the making of placements by an agency. Regulations 12 and 13 deal with the conditions to which placement agreements must be subject and also provide for the monitoring and review of placements. Regulation 14 sets out the situations in which an adult placement agency must terminate a placement. Regulation 15 makes provision about the fitness of adult placement carers and requires satisfactory information to be obtained in relation to the matters specified in Schedule 3. Regulation 16 deals with the contents of the carer agreement, and in addition provision is made for the training of adult placement carers (Regulation 17), an adult placement carer handbook (regulation 18) and the production of a service user’s plan (regulation 19). Provision is made in Part IV of the Regulations as to an agency’s conduct (Regulation 20), record keeping (Regulation 21 and Schedule 4) and complaints (Regulation 22). Provision is also made about the fitness of premises (Regulation 27) and about the fitness of staff (Regulation 28 and Schedule 2) and staffing (Regulation 29). Regulations also deal with financial management of the agency (Regulation 32) and the giving of notices to the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (Regulations 33 to 35). Part V of the Regulations deal with miscellaneous matters. In particular, Regulation 39 provides for offences. A breach of Regulations 3 to 36 will be an offence on the part of the registered person. However no prosecution may be brought unless the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority has given notice which sets out in what respect it is alleged the person is not complying with a regulation and what action (if any), and by when, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority considers it necessary in order to comply with the regulation. Regulation 40 makes transitional provisions.

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