UK Offence Report

Liability of persons other than principal offender

regulation 15(1) of The General Product Safety 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

1 Where the commission by any person of an offence to which regulation

14 above applies is due to the act or default committed by some other person in the course of

a commercial activity of his, the other person shall be guilty of an offence and may be proceeded against and punished by virtue of this paragraph whether or not proceedings are taken against the first-mentioned person.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

tions it shall be a defence for that person to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. 2 Where in any proceedings against any person for such an offence the defence provided by paragraph (1) above involves an allegation that the commission of the offence was due— a to the act or default of another, or b to relia

What would breach regulation 15(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the General Product Safety Regulations 1994.

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
5 September 1994
In force from
3 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 implement the provisions of Council Directive 92/59/EEC on general product safety (OJ No. L228, 11.8.92, p.24). They impose requirements concerning the safety of products intended for consumers or likely to be used by consumers if such products are to be placed on the market by producers or supplied by distributors. These Regulations do not apply to second-hand products which are antiques or products supplied for repair or reconditioning before use subject to a proviso or where specific rules of Community law govern all aspects of safety of a product (regulation 3). Also, they do not apply insofar as specific rules of Community law govern an aspect of the safety of a particular product (regulation 4). The provisions of section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (c. 43) are disapplied in relation to products insofar as they impose general safety requirements in respect of those products (regulation 5). Regulation 7 provides that a product may not be placed on the market unless it is a safe product. Regulation 8 imposes requirements on a producer to provide information to consumers and adopt measures to inform himself of risks a product might present and identifies some measures which might be taken. Requirements are imposed on distributors to act with due care to ensure that the requirements of regulation 7 are met. In particular, a distributor must not supply a dangerous product (regulation 9(a)) and he must participate, within the limits of his activities, in monitoring the safety of products placed on the market (regulation 9(b)). Requirements in relation to preparatory acts to placing a product on the market or supplying it are provided (regulation 13). Products which comply with specific rules of United Kingdom law laying down health and safety requirements are deemed to comply with the general safety requirement (regulation 10(1)) and the Regulations specify the means of assessing conformity with the general safety requirement in the absence of such specific rules (regulation 10(2)). The Regulations make provision for enforcement; regulation 11 provides for enforcement authorities and makes provision in respect of powers of those authorities. These include powers to issue suspension notices and to obtain information. Regulation 12 provides for offences, including offences in respect of preparatory acts relating to placing products on the market and supplying products. A defence of due diligence is provided in certain circumstances (regulation 14). Penalties are prescribed for offences under the Regulations; for offences under regulation 12 or 13 the penalty on summary conviction is imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or both. Level 5 on the standard scale is £5,000 in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland it is £2,000. Failure to comply with a prohibition notice or notice to warn under section 13 of the 1987 Act or a suspension notice under section 14 of that Act or to provide information pursuant to section 18 of that Act are offences attracting similar penalties to those prescribed in relation to offences under regulation 12 save in relation to the provision of information where failure to provide information attracts a fine on summary conviction or on conviction on indictment. Forfeiture of products may be ordered on the application of an enforcement authority. Regulation 6 provides for a consequential repeal of section 10(3)(b)(ii) of the 1987 Act and revocation of the Approval of Safety Standards Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1911). A compliance cost assessment is available, copies of which have been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies of the assessment are also available from the Consumer Affairs Division of the Department of Trade and Industry, Room 309, 10-18 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0NN.

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.

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 0.92.

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