UK Offence Report

Supply in accordance with a PTP

regulation 15B(5) of The Pharmaceutical Services (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022

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

5 The dispensing doctor may refuse to provide an order for

a drug that is or is purportedly in accordance with

a PTP, where—

a the dispensing doctor reasonably believes it is not

a genuine order for the person who requests, or on whose behalf is requested, the provision of the drug;

b providing it would be contrary to the dispensing doctor’s clinical judgement;

c the dispensing doctor or other persons are subjected to or threatened with violence by the person who requests the provision of the drug, or by any person accompanying that person; or

d the person who requests the provision of the drug, or any person accompanying that person, commits or threatens to commit

a criminal 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 15B(5)?

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 requests the provision of the drug, or by any person accompanying that person; or d the person who requests the provision of the drug, or any person accompanying that person.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Pharmaceutical Services (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. 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 here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
8 February 2022
In force from
1 March 2022
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 amend the Pharmaceutical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (“the Pharmaceutical Regulations”) which govern the arrangements for the provision of pharmaceutical services under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972. The changes arise out of new arrangements for the independent prescribing of drugs and appliances by registered paramedics and therapeutic radiographers and the inclusion of registered dietitians as supplementary prescribers. Regulation 2 inserts new definitions of “authorisation”, “paramedic independent prescriber” and “therapeutic radiographer independent prescriber” into regulation 2 of the Pharmaceutical Regulations. It also substitutes new definitions of “prescriber” and “relevant register” in this regulation and amends the definition of “supplementary prescriber” to include dietitians. Finally it inserts a new definition of “PTP” (pandemic treatment protocol) into this regulation which is part of new measures that are being introduced as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic, related to which is the expansion of the national programme for immunisation against influenza. Regulation 3 amends Schedule 2 to the Pharmaceutical Regulations to make provision to allow chemists and dispensing doctors to supply in accordance with a “PTP”, which allows for the supply, without a prescription, of prescription only medicines used for the prevention or treatment of diseases that are, or in anticipation of them being imminently, pandemic. There are also supplementary provisions related to this requirement dealing with matters such as dispensing.

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 “commits 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