UK Offence Report

Land services-sanction

paragraph 6 of SCHEDULE 5 of The Building Societies (Commercial Assets and Services) Order 1988

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

6 If a person performs any service in contravention of paragraph 5 of Part III of this Schedule he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 paragraph 6 of SCHEDULE 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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Building Societies (Commercial Assets and Services) Order 1988, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 4
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 4 value when the instrument came into force (1988-08-30); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean £2500.

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
30 June 1988
In force from
30 August 1988
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 empowers building societies to acquire, hold and dispose of four additional forms of commercial asset, and varies Schedule 8 to the Building Societies Act 1986 to increase the range of services which may be provided by societies. Article 3 of and Schedule 1 to the Order extend the forms of property which a building society may acquire, hold and dispose of as Class 3 assets for the purposes of the commercial asset structure requirements of section 20 of the Act to include residual mortgage debts (on reacquisition of mortgages previously transferred by the society), rights under instruments relating to mortgages, personal property for leasing and rights arising from lending for bridging purposes, subject in the case of each type of asset to conditions and restrictions. Article 3(3) specifies how these assets are to be valued for the purposes of section 20, and article 4 and Schedules 2, 3 and 4 make consequential amendments to take the value of such assets where relevant into account in calculating the limits on mobile home loans under section 15, loans to individuals under section 16 and accounts under the Building Societies (Limited Credit Facilities) Order 1987. Article 5 varies Schedule 8 to the Act by replacing it with a new Schedule (Schedule 5 to the Order) which extends the range of services which building societies may provide. Part I of Schedule 8 formerly defined in more specific terms those services which societies might adopt power to provide. The services previously specified were money transmission and foreign exchange, making or receiving payments as agents, managing mortgage investments and land, arranging for services relating to the acquisition or disposal of investments, giving investment advice, arranging for the provision of units in unit trust schemes, establishing and managing personal equity plans, arranging credit agreements, establishing and managing unit trust schemes for the provision of pensions, establishing and administering pension schemes, arranging and giving advice as to insurance, providing land surveys and valuations, estate agency and conveyancing services. Part II of Schedule 8 formerly comprised the restriction repeated on the provision of services abroad, and Part III contained further restrictions on particular services. In the revised Schedule 8 as set out in Schedule 5 to the Order, the services which may be provided are described in Part Ii n terms largely following section 34(11) of the Act as banking services, investment services, insurance services, trusteeship, executorship and land services. Within this framework societies may provide any service which is not specifically restricted in the Schedule. Part II confines the power to provide services within the categories in Part I to services which are outside the scope of other provisions of the Act. Thus the power to make advances and loans, which is governed by Part III of the Act and forms part of the asset classification system in that Part, is excluded from the new powers in Schedule 8. Other powers similarly excluded (or excluded to a significant extent) are deposit-taking, acquisition of land or third party debts, acquisition and holding of shares or other commercial assets permitted under section 19 (including those covered by article 3 of this Order), acquisition of other investments and underwriting risks. Where a power exists independently of Schedule 8, and a power under Schedule 8 overlaps the existing power, restrictions contained in the Schedule do not apply to the original power. For example, Section 17 allows a building society to hold and develop land as a commercial asset, subject to the conditions specified in that Section. Paragraph 4(h) of Part III of the new Schedule restricts the development of land to land which belongs to a local authority or development corporation or which is charged in favour of the developer to secure repayment of the costs of development, but this restriction has no application where a society is exercising power under section 17 to develop its own land. Part III of Schedule 5 contains restrictions on individual services or elements of them. For example, specified banking services may be provided only to individuals. Services such as the administration of share issues, managing investments, establishment of personal equity plans and collective investment schemes, removal and storage of furniture, and management or development of land may only be provided by a building Society which has a qualifying asset holding. A society has a qualifying asset holding where the aggregate value of its total commercial assets is not less than £100 million. Management or development of land is also restricted to land which is to be used primarily for residential purposes. Part IV contains supplementary provisions relating to the scope of the powers to provide services as they apply both generally and in relation to specific services.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
Confidence
0.72 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