UK Offence Report

Modification of schedule 1 (relevant offences) to the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007

article 11 of The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (Relevant Offences) (Modification) Order 2010

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 After paragraph2(g) insert— h commits an offence in respect of attempting or conspiring to commit any offence referred to in this paragraph, i commits an offence in respect of aiding and abetting, inciting, counselling or procuring any offence referred to in this paragraph, other than an offence referred to in sub-paragraph (eh), j commits an offence in respect of attempting or conspiring to commit any offence listed in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 or 8 of Schedule 1 to the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (Automatic Listing) (Specified Criteria) Order 2010 in relation to a child, k commits an offence in respect of aiding and abetting, inciting, counselling or procuring any offence listed in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 or 8 of Schedule 1 to the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (Automatic Listing) (Specified Criteria) Order 2010 in relation to a child, l commits an offence in relation to a child which— i is similar in nature to an offence referred to in this paragraph, and ii was provided for in an enactment which is no longer in force or was an offence at common law which has been abolished by an enactment. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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 article 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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (Relevant Offences) (Modification) Order 2010.

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
9 June 2010
In force from
Not determined
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 is made under sections 32(2) and 100(2) of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (asp14) (“the Act”). Section 32(1) defines a relevant offence for the purposes of Part 1 of the Act. A relevant offence is an offence listed in schedule 1 to the Act. Under section7(1) of the Act, a court is required to refer to the Scottish Ministers an individual who is convicted of a relevant offence and under section 11 of the Act the Scottish Ministers are required to consider the individual for listing in the children’s list. In exercise of the power in section 32(2), this Order modifies schedule 1 to the Act in order to modify the circumstances in which an individual is to be treated for the purposes of Part 1 of the Act as having committed a relevant offence. Articles 3 to 6 modify paragraph 1 of schedule 1 which lists offences which can only be committed against a child. Paragraph 1(g) is omitted as this offence is being moved to paragraph2 of schedule 1 since a step-child under the Criminal Law Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1995 (c.39) is a child up to the age of 21 (articles 3 and 9). Article 4 is a consequential modification as a result of the modification of article 3. Section 5(1) of the Criminal Law Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1995 is now included in the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (Automatic Listing) (Specified Criteria) Order 2010 (SSI 2010/), (“Automatic Listing Order”) but sections5(2) and (3) remain as relevant offences (article 5). Article 6 includes offences under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 (asp 9) and inchoate and art and part offences in respect of offences listed in paragraph 1 of schedule 1 to the Act or listed in specified paragraphs of the Automatic Listing Order; it also makes provision for repealed offences which are similar to those in paragraph 1 of schedule 1 to the Act under which historic conduct might still be prosecuted. Articles 7 to 11 modify paragraph 2 of schedule 1 to the Act which lists offences which are not necessarily committed against children, but which are qualified for the purposes of the Act as having a child victim. Article 7 inserts the offence of culpable homicide in relation to a child. Articles 8, 9 and 10 insert various specified statutory offences into paragraph 2 of schedule 1, in particular offences under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009. Article 11 inserts provisions to deal with inchoate and art and part offences in respect of offences listed in paragraph 2 of schedule1 to the Act or listed in specified paragraphs of the Automatic Listing Order; it also makes provision for repealed offences which are similar to those in paragraph 2 of schedule 1 to the Act under which historic conduct might still be prosecuted.

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 “commits 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