UK Offence Report

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

regulation 17(2) of The Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 (revoked)

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

2 Where a contravention of regulation 14 above arises from the supply of electrical equipment which fails to satisfy the requirements of regulation 5(1) above or of goods which would cause the relevant equipment to contravene those requirements because there is in each case a risk of death or injury to domestic animals or damage to property, or both, but no risk of the death of a person or of personal injury, the person who contravenes regulation 14 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 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 17(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 person contravenes regulation 14.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994, 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
Status not determined
Made
15 December 1994
In force from
9 January 1995
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 consolidate with amendments the Low Voltage Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1989 (the “1989 Regulations”). They implement the requirements of Council Directive No. 73/23/EEC (OJ No. L77, 26.3.1973, p.29) on the harmonisation of the laws of member States relating to electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits, as amended by Council Directive No. 93/68/EEC (OJ No. L220, 30.8.1993, p.1) (the “CE marking” Directive). The 1989 Regulations applied (with certain exceptions) to any electrical equipment designed or adapted for use with voltage (in the case of alternating current) of not less than 50 volts nor more than 1,000 volts or (in the case of direct current) of not less than 75 volts nor more than 1,500 volts. They required electrical equipment to be safe and constructed in accordance with good engineering practice. These Regulations re-enact those requirements (with certain minor amendments) (regulations 4 and 5 and Schedules 2 and 3). Additionally, the 1989 Regulations provided that (subject to certain exceptions) electrical equipment would be deemed to satisfy the requirement that it be safe and constructed in accordance with good engineering practice if it satisfied harmonised standards or, in their absence, international safety provisions or, in the absence of both harmonised standards and international safety provisions, satisfied national safety provisions. Subject to certain minor amendments these provisions are re-enacted in the Regulations (regulations 6 and 7). Those provisions of the CE marking Directive which relate to electrical equipment are implemented for the first time by these Regulations. The relevant new provisions are that the Regulations:— 1 Require the affixing to all electrical equipment (or its packaging, instruction sheet or guarantee certificate) of the CE marking by way of confirmation that the equipment satisfies all the requirements of the Regulations which relate to it (regulation 9 and Schedule 1); 2 Require that a written declaration of conformity comprising certain information relating to the electrical equipment be drawn up and kept available for inspection by an enforcement authority for a period of ten years after manufacture of electrical equipment of that model has ceased (regulations 10 and 11); 3 Require that certain technical documentation relating to electrical equipment be compiled and kept available for inspection by an enforcement authority for a period of ten years after manufacture of electrical equipment of that model has ceased (regulation 11 and Schedule 4); 4 Provide for the issuing of a compliance notice in respect of electrical equipment to which the CE marking has been unduly affixed, save where the electrical equipment in question is likely to damage the health or safety of any person (regulation 13 and Schedule 5). In addition to the above provisions and to minor consequential drafting amendments, the Regulations make the following changes of substance and clarification: 1 Secondhand electrical equipment or equipment which is hired out (save where its first hiring out is its first supply to an end user) must be safe but need not comply with the requirements of the Regulations relating to CE marking, the EC declaration of conformity and internal production control (regulations 5(3) and 12); 2 Electrical equipment which satisfies the safety provisions of harmonised standards (or where appropriate international or national safety provisions) shall be taken to comply with the safety requirements of the Regulations unless there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that it does not so comply (regulations 6 and 7); 3 The Health and Safety Executive may make arrangements for the enforcement of the Regulations in relation to equipment for use in the workplace under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (regulation 17(3)); 4 A person who supplies electrical equipment which does not bear the CE marking shall, if required, provide certain information to an enforcement authority (regulation 18); The Regulations come into force on 9th January 1995 but they do not apply to any electrical equipment which is placed on the market before 1st January 1997 and which complies with the provisions of the 1989 Regulations (regulations 1 and 4(4)). A Compliance Cost Assessment in respect of these Regulations is available and a copy can be obtained from the Consumer Affairs Division of the Department of Trade and Industry, Room 303, 10-18 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0NN. A copy has also been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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”; 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