UK Offence Report

Disqualification from being a member

regulation 6(1) of The Health Boards (Membership and Procedure) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2016

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

1 A person is disqualified from being a member if the person— a within a period of 5 years before the proposed date of appointment or after appointment (as the case may be) commits an offence in the British Islands for which the person is sentenced to imprisonment (whether suspended or not) for 3 months or longer; b is or has been dismissed from employment in a health service body, except by redundancy; c is or has been removed from office in a health service body before the term of office expires; d is a member of another health service body; e is or has been removed, for reasons of impairment or loss of fitness to practise, from a list under— i Parts I or II of the Act; ii the National Health Service Act 2006; iii the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006; or iv the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972; f is or has been removed, for reasons of impairment or loss of fitness to practise, from a statutory register maintained by a regulatory body; g is an undischarged bankrupt; h is or has been subject to a disqualification order or disqualification undertaking under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 or the Company Directors Disqualification (Northern Ireland) Order 2002; i is or has been removed or prevented from being a trustee of, or otherwise acting for or on behalf of, a charity (or a body controlled by a charity) by— i a charity regulator; or ii a court or tribunal in the British Islands; or j is or has been subject to a sanction under section 19(1)(b) to (e) (action on finding of contravention) of the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 6(1)?

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 Health Boards (Membership and Procedure) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2016.

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
6 January 2016
In force from
8 February 2016
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 Health Boards (Membership and Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2001 (“the 2001 Regulations”) to update provision concerning the membership and procedure of Boards in Scotland established under section 2 of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978. Regulation 2(2) removes redundant definitions. Provisions which refer to certain, now outdated, executive employee positions of a Board are replaced by updated provisions— a regulation 2(3) has the effect of prohibiting a member who is also employed as an executive officer of a Board from receiving remuneration for being a member; b regulation 2(6) continues to require a Board to appoint a vice-chairperson but has the effect of disqualifying a member who is also an employee of a Board from holding that position; c regulation 2(7) has the effect of prohibiting a member who is also an employee of a Board from acting as chairperson in the absence of the appointed chairperson and vice-chairperson; and d regulation 2(8)(a) has the effect of requiring at least two members who are not also employees of a Board to make quorum, provided at least one third of all members are present. Regulation 2(4) inserts provision allowing the Scottish Ministers to suspend a member from taking part in the business (including meetings) of a Board. Suspension ends when the Scottish Ministers determine or if the person’s appointment is not terminated by the Scottish Ministers under regulation 5(2) of the 2001 Regulations within 12 months beginning with the date of suspension, whichever is sooner. Regulation 2(5) substitutes provision which disqualifies a person from being a member of a Board with updated disqualification provision. It continues to be the case that a person who is already a member and who becomes disqualified ceases to be a member by virtue of regulation 5(5) of the 2001 Regulations. Regulation 2(8)(b) removes superfluous provision from the 2001 Regulations.

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