UK Offence Report

11 Any person who without reasonable excuse– a obstructs the exercise of any power conferred by regulation…

regulation 11 of The Social Work Inspections (Scotland) Regulations 2006

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

11 Any person who without reasonable excuse–

a obstructs the exercise of any power conferred by regulation 6(1) or 7;

b fails to comply with any requirement of, or imposed by virtue of, regulation 6(1), 7,

8 or 9; is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

4 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
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

11 Any person who without reasonable excuse– a obstructs the exercise of any power conferred by regulation 6(1) or 7; b fails to comply with any requirement of, or imposed by virtue of, regulation 6(1), 7, 8 or 9; is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4

What would breach regulation 11?

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– a obstructs the exercise of any power conferred by regulation 6(1) or 7.
  2. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Social Work Inspections (Scotland) Regulations 2006.
  3. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  4. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
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
2 November 2006
In force from
3 November 2006
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 concerning inspections and investigations carried out by social work inspectors under Part 2 of the Joint Inspection of Children’s Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Act 2006. Regulation 3 provides as to the types of inspection and investigation which may be carried out. Regulations 4 and 5 concern the sharing of information between social work inspectors and other persons, either for the purposes of a Part 2 inspection or investigation or to assist the carrying out of functions by those other persons. Regulations 6 to 9 provide inspectors with powers to enter premises and obtain information or explanations. Regulation 10 concerns the disposal of personal records held by an inspector in consequence of an inspection or investigation. Regulation 11 creates criminal offences in respect of obstructing an inspector or failing to comply with certain requirements in the Regulations. A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument, as it has no impact on the costs of business, charities or voluntary bodies.

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 0.92.

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