UK Offence Report

1 An employer who fails to comply with any of the relevant requirements shall be guilty of an offence.

regulation 37(1) of The Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

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 An employer who fails to comply with any of the relevant requirements shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an employer
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 an employer 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 37(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 an employer fails to comply with any of the relevant requirements.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
18 February 2016
In force from
28 February 2016
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, to the extent they are made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 (c. 68), implement Council Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time (O.J. L299, 18.11.2003, p. 9) (which consolidated Council Directive 93/104/EC (O.J. L307, 13.12.93, p. 18) as amended by Council Directive 2000/34/EC (O.J. L195, 01.08.2000, p. 41)) and provisions concerning working time in Council Directive 94/33/EC on the protection of young people at work (O.J. L216, 20.8.94, p. 12). The provisions in the latter Directive which are implemented relate only to adolescents (those who have not attained the age of 18 and are over compulsory school age). These Regulations consolidate and replace the provisions of the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 and the various Statutory Rules which amended those Regulations from 1998 to 2009. Regulations 4 to 11 in these Regulations impose obligations on employers, enforceable by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland and district councils; failure to comply is an offence. The obligations concern the maximum average weekly working time of workers (subject to provision for individual workers to agree that the maximum should not apply to them), the average normal hours of night workers, the provision of health assessments for night workers, and rest breaks to be given to workers engaged in certain kinds of work; employers are also required to keep records of workers’ hours of work. Regulations 12 to 21 confer rights on workers, enforceable by proceedings before industrial tribunals. The rights are to a rest period in every 24 hours during which a worker works for an employer and longer rest periods each week or fortnight, to a rest break in the course of a working day, and to a period of paid annual leave. Regulation 16 provides an entitlement for additional annual leave and is made under powers contained in Article 15 of the Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 (N.I. 16). Regulations 22 to 35 provide for particular regulations not to apply, either in relation to workers engaged in certain kinds of work or where particular circumstances arise. There is also provision for groups of workers and their employers to agree to modify or exclude the application of particular regulations. Regulation 44 part implements Council Directive 2008/52/EC (O.J. L136, 24.05.2006, p. 3) on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters, which applies to cross border disputes, by providing for the extension of limitation periods so that these do not expire during the mediation process. The remaining regulations make provision in relation to enforcement and remedies, and in respect of agency workers, Crown servants, the police, trainees and agricultural workers. Regulations 53 and 54 provide for consequential amendments, the revocation of the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 and the various Statutory Rules which amended those Regulations from 1998 to 2009 and for savings.

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