UK Offence Report

Fitness of providers

regulation 6(2) of The Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 The following persons are unfit to provide a care service:— a a person who is not of integrity and good character; b a person who has been convicted whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere of any offence which is punishable by a period of imprisonment of not less than 3 months and has been sentenced to imprisonment (whether or not suspended or deferred) for any period without the option of a fine and who, in the reasonable opinion of SCSWIS is unsuitable to be a provider of a care service; c a person whose estate has been sequestrated or who has been adjudged bankrupt unless (in either case) the person has been discharged or the bankruptcy order annulled; d a person who has been made the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order or an interim bankruptcy restrictions order under Schedule4A to the Insolvency Act 1986 or sections56A to 56K of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985 unless that order has ceased to have effect or has been annulled; e a person who has made a composition or arrangement with, or granted a trust deed for, the person’s creditors unless the person has been discharged in respect of it; f a person who has had an administrator, administrative receiver or a receiver appointed (which appointment is still in effect); g a person who has been— i removed under section34 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (powers of the Court of Session) from being concerned in the management or control of any body; or ii removed from the office of charity trustee or trustee for a charity by an order made by the Charity Commission for England and Wales or the High Court on the grounds of any misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity for which the person was responsible or to which the person was privy, or which the person by that person’s conduct contributed to or facilitated; h a person who is subject to a disqualification order under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, or to an order made under section429(2)(b) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (failure to pay under county court administration order); and i a person who is subject to proceedings outside the United Kingdom which are equivalent to those listed at sub-paragraphs(b) to (h) above.

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 6(2)?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. 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 in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019
Made
15 March 2011
In force from
1 April 2011
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations set out requirements which must be complied with by providers of care services under Part5 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. A care service must be provided in accordance with the general principles set out in regulation3. Regulation4 imposes requirements on providers which relate to the welfare of service users. In accordance with regulation5, the provider is required to prepare a personal plan for each service user setting out how the service user’s health, welfare and safety needs will be met. The Regulations specify persons who are not fit to provide (regulation6), manage (regulation7) or be employed in a care service (regulation9). They also make provision as to fitness of premises (regulation10) and fitness in relation to adult placement services (regulation11). A provider of child minding is required by regulation12 not to allow persons unfit to be in the proximity of children to live on the premises and requires notification to SCSWIS of certain changes to persons living at the premises. Regulation13 concerns the impact of a listing in the children’s or adults’ list in the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Act 2007. Regulation14 makes provision as to the facilities required in care homes and regulation15 concerns the staffing in care services. Regulation16 imposes a prohibition on any person having a financial interest in a care home from acting as a medical practitioner for any user of that service. Regulation17 makes provision as to the appointment of a manager of a care service and regulation18 obliges a care service to establish and operate a complaints procedure. Regulation19 provides that contravening or failing to comply with certain provisions of the Regulations is an offence. A person who commits an offence under these Regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level5 on the standard scale.

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 0.60.

Basis
the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.60 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