UK Offence Report

Exception as to liability

regulation 37 of The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994

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

37 No person shall be guilty of an offence by reason of contravention of regulation 3(2) or (5), 5(1), 7(3), 15, 16(2) or (3), 17, 30, 33(1) or

35 in any case in which he can show that he took all reasonable steps to prevent that contravention.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 37?

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 Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994, 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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
15 July 1994
In force from
31 October 1994
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 re-enact the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1984 (“the 1984 Regulations”) with amendments. The 1984 Regulations imposed requirements only as to the installation and use of gas fittings for the purpose of protecting the public from risks arising from the use of gas supplied through pipes. In addition to minor and drafting amendments, these Regulations make the following changes of substance:— The scope of the Regulations is extended to all dangers arising from the transmission, distribution, supply or use of gas conveyed from a gas storage vessel (regulation 2(3)) other than in relation to the supply of gas to, or anything in respect of a gas fitting on, specified vessels and vehicles (regulation 2(5)). The Regulations are no longer applied to agricultural premises and temporary installations used in connection with any building operation or work of engineering construction except in relation to any part of such premises used for domestic or residential purposes or as sleeping accommodation and except in relation to regulation 36 (escape of gas) (regulation 2(4)). The Regulations also contain new provisions which— prohibit any person from falsely pretending to be a member of a class of persons required to be approved by the Health and Safety Executive for the purpose of carrying out any work in relation to a gas fitting (regulation 3(6)); require employers and self-employed persons to take steps to ensure that any work in relation to a gas fitting carried out at any place of work under their control is undertaken by specified persons (regulation 4); require safety precautions to be taken in respect of gas storage vessels and specified appliances fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas (regulation 6(7) to (9)); impose restrictions upon the type of gas appliance that may be installed in sleeping accommodation (regulation 30(2) and (3)); impose requirements upon employers and self-employed persons with regard to the maintenance of gas appliances and installation pipework installed at any place of work under their control (regulation 35(1)); impose requirements upon persons who let premises— with regard to the maintenance of gas appliances and installation pipework owned by them on those premises (regulation 35(2) and (3)(a)); and with regard to the keeping of records in respect of any appliance required to be so maintained (regulation 35(3)(b) and (4)); impose upon a non-public gas supplier specified duties in respect of the escape of gas (regulation 36(1) and (5) to (7)); extend exception as to liability to specified provisions of the Regulations (regulation 37). The Regulations revoke the 1984 Regulations and the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 1990 (regulation 39).

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”
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