UK Offence Report

1 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements of regulation 7(8) is guilty of an…

regulation 12(1) of The Employer’s Contributions Re-imbursement Regulations 1996

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 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements of regulation 7(8) is guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 12(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes or fails to comply with the requirements of regulation 7(8).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Employer’s Contributions Re-imbursement Regulations 1996 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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
1 February 1996
In force from
6 April 1996
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 provide for employers to make deductions from their Social Security contributions payments in prescribed circumstances where they employ a qualifying employee. Regulation 1 contains definitions. Regulation 2 sets out the circumstances in which a person, who would not otherwise satisfy the condition in section 27(1) of the Jobseekers Act 1995 that immediately before beginning his employment with that employer he be entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance for a continuous period of not less than two years, will be treated as satisfying such condition. Regulation 3 sets out the circumstances in which a person, who would not otherwise satisfy the condition in section 27(2)(a) of the Jobseekers Act 1995 that immediately before beginning his employment with that employer he be unemployed for a continuous period of not less than two years, will be treated as satisfying such condition. Regulation 4 sets out the prescribed description of a person for the purposes of section 27(2)(c) of the Jobseekers Act 1995. Regulation 5 provides that an employer must employ a person who is a qualifying employee for a continuous period of at least 13 weeks and have obtained a deductions certificate in order to make deductions in accordance with these Regulations and sets out how the amount which an employer is entitled to deduct is to be calculated. Regulation 6 provides for the making of deductions in the case of certain mariners. Regulation 7 provides for an application to be made to the Secretary of State for a deductions certificate before making any deduction and sets out requirements for the form of such an application and the period within which it shall be made to the Secretary of State. Regulation 8 provides that where an employer is entitled to deduct amounts determined in accordance with regulation 5 or 6 that such deductions may be made by one or more deductions from the employer’s contributions payments except in specified circumstances. Regulation 9 provides that where an employer is unable to deduct in whole or part an amount because it exceeds the amount of his contributions payments paid in an income tax period the Secretary of State or the Commissioners of Inland Revenue acting on his behalf shall on request in writing by the employer pay the employer such sum. Regulation 10 restricts the right to make deductions where an employee is a qualifying employee in relation to more than one employer at the same time. Regulation 11 provides for employers to be treated as one where the earnings are aggregated by virtue of regulation 12(1)(a) of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 1979. Regulation 12 makes it an offence to fail to comply with the requirement of regulation 7(8). Regulation 13 amends certain provisions in Schedule 1 to the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 1979 by referring to these Regulations. These Regulations are made pursuant to sections 27, 34(3) and (7), 35(1) and (3) and 36 of the Jobseekers Act 1995 and are made before the end of a period of 6 months beginning with the date those provisions came into force. Accordingly they are exempted by section 173(5)(a) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 from reference to the Social Security Advisory Committee and have not been so referred. An assessment of the costs to business of applying regulations 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 13 has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies can be obtained by post from the Department of Social Security, Deregulation Unit, 9th Floor, Adelphi, 1–11 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6HT.

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