UK Offence Report

Offence of breaching conditions of approval to hold larger live event

regulation 14(1) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (revoked)

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 It is an offence for a person to contravene a condition imposed— a by a local authority under regulation 10(2)(b), 12(2) or (3) or b by the Scottish Ministers by virtue of regulation 13(3).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 a condition of a licence, permit or consent
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 14(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. On these words it is an offence to contravene a condition imposed— a by a local authority under regulation 10(2)(b), 12(2) or (3) or b by the Scottish Ministers by virtue of regulation 13(3).
  2. Holding a valid licence but doing the thing it allows outside the hours, place or limits its conditions set under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021.
  3. Failing to do something a condition positively requires - a record, a notification, a monitoring step - even though the licensed activity itself is carried on properly.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£10,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
5 August 2021
In force from
9 August 2021
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 (which come into force on 9 August 2020) set out continuing requirements which apply in Scotland as a result of coronavirus and revoke the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020. A person who is responsible for a relevant hospitality premises or relevant entertainment premises is required to take measures to obtain and record visitor information, in a suitable filing system, for a period of at least 21 days. They must provide this information to a public health officer as soon as reasonably practicable if so requested for the purpose of preventing the spread of coronavirus or monitoring the spread of infection and the incidence of coronavirus disease. Persons responsible for a place of worship, for carrying on a business or providing a service are also required to have regard to guidance issued by the Scottish Ministers relating to its premises, business or service. These Regulations require persons in specified places (see regulations 5 and 6) to wear a face covering unless a specific exemption applies. They also require persons who use a passenger transport service or passenger transport service premises (which are both defined terms in the Regulations) to wear a face covering unless a specific exemption applies (regulation 7). Part 3 of the Regulations makes provision for limits in relation to large live events and stadia, to enable approval of higher attendance numbers, and to allow revocation of approvals and of any conditions that may be applied in relation to approval. Part 4 of the Regulations provides for the enforcement of these Regulations, including criminal offences (regulation 16) and fixed penalty notices (regulation 17). The final provisions in Part 5 require the Scottish Ministers to review the requirements imposed by these Regulations at least once every 21 days, the first review taking place by 30 August 2021, and require them to revoke requirement as soon as it is no longer necessary to prevent, protect against, control or provide a public health response to the incidence or spread of coronavirus in Scotland. These Regulations expire on 28 February 2022.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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