UK Offence Report

Amendment of principal Order

article 6(a) of The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Amendment Order 2003

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

a after paragraph

3 insert– 3A After section 7(5) (offences, etc) of the 1982 Act there shall be inserted as follows:– 5A Any person who without reasonable excuse acts as an agent for an owner of

a house in multiple occupation when that owner does not hold or has not applied for

a licence as required by the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale. 5B Where an officer of

a licensing authority has reasonable grounds to suspect that the occupation of

a house involves the commission of an offence under this Act, that officer may require any agent of the owner of that house to disclose the name and address of that owner. 5C Any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with

a requirement made by virtue of subsection (5B) above shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding level

3 on the standard scale. 5D For the purposes of this section,

a person acts as an agent for an owner of

a house if that person acts on behalf of that owner in carrying out any activity which directly permits or facilitates the occupation of that house. . ; and

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

Act there shall be inserted as follows:– 5A Any person who without reasonable excuse acts as an agent for an owner of a house in multiple occupation when that owner does not hold or has not applied for a licence as required by the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 shall be guilty of a

What would breach article 6(a)?

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 excuse fails to comply with a requirement made by virtue of subsection (5B) above.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Amendment Order 2003 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
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Scotland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (CP(S)A 1995 s.225(2)), 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
29 September 2003
In force from
1 October 2003
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes amendments to the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 (“the 2000 Order”). The 2000 Order was first amended by S.S.I. 2002/161. Article 3 inserts a definition of “co-ownership body”. Article 4 amends article 2(2) of the 2000 Order to add houses owned by co-ownership bodies to the list of those that are exempt from the licensing requirements. Article 5 amends article 5 of the 2000 Order with the effect that resident owners of a house in multiple occupation and any members of that owner’s family also resident in that house shall be disregarded in calculating the number of qualifying persons for that house. Article 6(a) amends the Schedule to the 2000 Order, which modifies provisions of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (“the 1982 Act”). It creates two new offences relating to agents for owners of houses in multiple occupation. Article 6(b) further modifies the provisions of the 1982 Act by substituting a new paragraph 15 into Schedule 1 to that Act. This has the effect of taking such fees and expenses out of the general treatment of fees and expenses for other licensing activities under the 1982 Act and makes separate new provision for them. In particular, it provides that a licensing authority in considering the level of fees to charge should take account of any money paid by grant by the Scottish Ministers.

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 0.96.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.96 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