UK Offence Report

Regulations to be treated as safety regulations within the meaning of the 1987 Act

regulation 15(2) of The Toys (Safety) Regulations 1989

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 A manufacturer, authorised representative or first supplier who contravenes regulation 10(3) above shall be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction with imprisonment for not more than three months or with

a fine not exceeding level five 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 manufacturer
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 manufacturer 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 15(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. On these words an offence is committed where a manufacturer contravenes regulation 10(3) above.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Toys (Safety) Regulations 1989, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. 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
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
The Toys (Safety) Regulations 1995
Revoked on
24 February 1995
Made
25 July 1989
In force from
Not determined
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 (“the Regulations”) which (subject to a limited saving) revoke the Toys (Safety) Regulations 1974 and the Toys (Safety) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1975 implement Council Directive 88/378/EEC (“the Directive”) on the approximation of the laws of the member States concerning the safety of toys. The Directive is based on the Council resolution of 7th May 1985 on a new approach to technical harmonisation and standards (OJ No. C136, 4.6.85, p. 1). It lays down essential safety requirements which toys must satisfy. Harmonised standards prepared by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) and embodying in technical specifications essential safety requirements are transposed by national standards bodies into relevant national standards the reference numbers of which are published in each member State (in the United Kingdom by the Secretary of State). The Regulations provide that in the case of toys which bear the EC mark denoting conformity with the relevant national standards applicable to that toy there shall be a presumption that the toys satisfy the essential safety requirements in Annex II of the Directive (regulation 5 and Schedule 2). In other cases, where an EC type-examination certificate is in force in respect of a model of the toy and the toy bears the EC mark denoting conformity with the approved model the Regulations provide that there is a presumption that the toy satisfies the essential safety requirements (regulation 6). The Regulations apply to toys as defined in the Regulations and exclude toys specified in Schedule 3. The Regulations– a prohibit the supply of toys which do not satisfy the essential safety requirements (regulations 4 and 12); b prohibit the supply of toys which– i have been manufactured in accordance with relevant national standards and do not bear the EC mark by which the manufacturer or his authorised representative established in the Community confirms that the toy conforms with those standards; or ii have not been so manufactured and do not bear the EC mark by which the manufacturer or his authorised representative established in the Community confirms that the toy conforms with a model of the toy in respect of which an EC type-examination certificate is in force (regulations 9 and 12); c provide for bodies approved by the Secretary of State to carry out examinations and tests and issue EC type-examination certificates in respect of models of toys (regulation 7); d provide for the EC mark (a form is shown for purposes of illustration in Schedule 1) and other information to be put on toys to which the Regulations apply or on the packaging or, in the case of small toys, alternatively on an attached label, on an accompanying printed label or leaflet or, in the case of toys which are not individually packaged, on the box or other packaging containing a number of toys (regulation 9); e provide for the manufacturer of toys or if he is not established in the Community his authorised representative established in the United Kingdom or any other person established in the United Kingdom who supplies a toy on the first occasion on which it is supplied in the Community to keep available and give information in respect of toys supplied in the Community (regulation 10). Regulation 14 enables summary proceedings to be instituted for an offence under the Regulations involving an offence under section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 within twelve months of the commission of the offence. Regulation 15 provides that in the case of a contravention of regulation 10(3) the person who contravenes the regulation is to be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction with a maximum of three months' imprisonment or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. In other cases the penalty for a contravention of the regulations involving an offence under section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 is a maximum of six months' imprisonment or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or both, by virtue of section 12(5) of that Act.

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”; the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
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