UK Offence Report

Disclosure of data relating to a particular building or building unit

regulation 18(5) of The Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025

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

5 It is an offence for

a person to disclose, or permit the disclosure of, assessment data otherwise than in accordance with this regulation or regulations 17,

19 or 20.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 18(5)?

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 disclose, or permit the disclosure of, assessment data otherwise than in accordance with this regulation or regulations 17, 19 or 20.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
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
16 December 2025
In force from
Not determined
Extent
S

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 under the sections 1(1) and 49(1) of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 and sections 250 and 331(2) of the Energy Act 2023. They come fully into force on 31 October 2026 and are partially in force on 1 January 2026 so as to enable the approval of organisations and of accreditation schemes under regulations 11 and 12 respectively. These Regulations replace the Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2008 (S.S.I. 2008/309) (“the 2008 Regulations”) which are revoked subject to certain saving provisions. Regulation 2 defines terms used in the Regulations and regulation 3 sets out the meaning of “prospective buyer” and “prospective tenant”. Regulation 4 disapplies the Regulations in respect of certain properties. Regulation 5 requires that were a property is to be sold or let an energy performance certificate and related property report must be made available for inspection free of charge to prospective buyers or tenants, as the case may be, and must be provided to the buyer or tenant when the property is sold or let. Regulation 6 requires that where a building is constructed the developer must give a copy of a valid energy performance certificate and related property report to the owner of the building. Regulation 7 requires that advertisements for the sale or let of properties must state the performance indicators for the property. Regulation 8 sets out the requirements for a valid energy performance certificate. It must include certain energy performance indicators and information. It must be issued by an accredited energy assessor or produced from the register to be maintained under regulation 14. An energy performance certificate is valid from 5 years from the date on which it is issued or until another energy performance certificate for the property is subsequently issued. Regulation 9 set out the information that a property report is to contain. This includes information as to how the energy performance of the property can be improved and the estimated costs. Regulation 10 requires the Scottish Ministers to approve and publish methodologies for the assessment and calculation of indicators and estimates to be included in energy performance certificates and property reports and for how they are to be expressed. Regulations 11 and 12 provide for the approval of accreditation schemes under which energy assessors are to produce energy performance certificates and related property reports and for the approval of organisations who are to operate accreditation schemes. Regulation 13 requires that a valid energy performance certificate is displayed in certain buildings which are frequently visited by the public. Regulation 14 makes provision for a register to be maintained of energy performance data from which energy performance certificates and property reports can be produced. Regulation 15 sets out fees in respect of entering data onto the register. Regulations 16 to 20 make provision for the disclosure of data relating to energy performance of buildings including energy performance certificates and property reports (regulation 17) and energy performance data relating to individual properties (regulation 18) or more generally (regulation 19). Regulations 21 to 32 relate to enforcement of the requirements of the Regulations by the enforcement authority which is the local authority (regulation 21). The enforcement authority may require the production of an energy performance certificate for a property where it appears to it that regulation 5 applies (regulation 22). Where the enforcement authority believes that an owner has breached the duty in regulation 5, 6, 7 or 13 it may serve a penalty charge notice on the owner (regulations 23 and 24). The amount payable as a penalty charge is £500 for domestic properties and £1,000 for other properties. Regulations 25 and 26 provide that the penalty charge is not payable in certain circumstances. Regulations 23 and 27 provide for review of a penalty charge notice and regulation 28 provides for an appeal to the sheriff. Regulations 29 and 30 provide for recovery of charges and for service of penalty change notices. Regulation 31 makes it an offence to obstruct or impersonate an officer of an enforcement authority. Regulation 32 makes special provision for how enforcement applies to the Crown. Regulation 33 and schedule 1 modify the application of these Regulations to properties which are green deal properties. Regulations 34 and 35 make amendments to the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 to reflect the replacement of the 2008 Regulations by these Regulations. Regulation 36 ensures that existing approvals under regulation 8 of the 2008 Regulations continue to have effect until 31 October 2026 despite the coming into force of new approval requirements under regulations 11 and 12. Regulation 37 and schedule 2 revokes the 2008 Regulations and various regulations which amended the 2008 Regulations. Regulation 38 makes saving and transitional provisions to enable the continued use of existing energy performance certificates.

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