UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996

the instrument as a whole of The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) 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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
18 February 1996
In force from
1 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 impose requirements in relation to the provision and use of safety signs and signals and as respects Great Britain implement Council Directive 92/58/EEC (OJ No. 245, 26.8.92, p. 23) on the minimum requirements for the provision of safety and/or health signs at work. The terms used in the Regulations are defined in regulation 2 and the circumstances in which the Regulations apply are set out in regulation 3. The exclusions include signs used in relation to the supply of equipment or substances, for the transport of dangerous goods and for the regulation of transport. The Regulations are extended offshore by this regulation. By regulation 4, safety signs are required to comply with the descriptions in Schedule 1. They must be provided where the risk assessment made under regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/2051) indicates that the risks cannot be avoided or adequately controlled in other ways. Fire safety signs must also be provided where they are required to comply with the provisions of any enactment. The regulation also requires that safety signs (other than a hand signal or verbal communication) are maintained. With certain exceptions (set out in Schedule 2) the hand signals to be used are described in Schedule 1. Regulation 5 requires that employees receive adequate instruction and training in the meaning of safety signs and the measures to be taken in connection with safety signs and regulation 6 provides for transitional periods in relation to fire safety signs already in use. Regulation 7 provides for enforcement. The Safety Signs Regulations 1980 are revoked and consequential modifications are made to other Regulations (regulation 8 and Schedule 3). Copies of the documents referred to in Schedule 2 are obtainable as follows— the British Standards referred to in Schedule 2 from BSI Standards, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL; Appendix C of the Fire Service Training Manual (ISBN 0 11 341091 3) from Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

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 0.67.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.67 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