UK Offence Report

1 It is hereby declared that contravention of any of the provisions specified in paragraph (2) is an offence.

regulation 19(1) of The Accounts and Audit Regulations 1996

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 It is hereby declared that contravention of any of the provisions specified in paragraph (2) is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 19(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 the thing the provision prohibits under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 1996, 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003
Revoked on
1 April 2003
Made
5 March 1996
In force from
1 April 1996
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, made under section 23 of the Local Government Act 1982, make provision with respect to the accounts and the audit of bodies whose accounts are required to be audited in accordance with Part III of that Act (other than health service bodies and Passenger Transport Executives) and to the accounts of an officer of such bodies to which Part III is applied by section 25 of that Act. The Regulations supersede the Accounts and Audit Regulations 1983, as amended, which, together with amending Regulations, are revoked from 1st April 1997. Changes from the 1983 Regulations contained in these Regulations include the requirement for a parish or community with a budgeted income of £500,000 or more for a period to prepare a statement of accounts for that period (regulation 6(4)), and for a parish or community with a budgeted income for a period of £5,000 or more up to £500,000 to prepare an income and expenditure account and a balance sheet for that period. (regulation 7(3)). Other changes are to the requirements for accounting records and control systems in regulation 4, the system of internal audit in regulation 5, the content of the statement of accounts (regulation 6(1)), and for the statement of accounts, income and expenditure account and a balance sheet or record of receipts and payments, as appropriate, to be approved by a committee of, or all the members of, the relevant body (regulation 8(2)). In addition, the Regulations provide that where an auditor’s report requires amendments to the statement of accounts, income and expenditure account or record of receipts and payments, on conclusion of the audit these documents should be available for inspection either revised as required, or together with an explanation of the amendments required. Regulation 10 contains a requirement for certain local authorities, and other bodies, to publish specified information relating to their accounts. The information is set out in the Schedule to the Regulations and relates to the cost of work falling within specified activities which are defined activities for the purposes of Part I of the Local Government Act 1988. These authorities and bodies are also required to include one item of the information in their statement of accounts. The contravention of certain provisions in the Regulations is declared to be an offence. The way in which auditors are required to carry out their functions under Part III of the 1982 Act is prescribed in the Code of Audit Practice prepared by the Audit Commission for Local Authorities and the National Health Service in England and Wales, in pursuance of section 14 of that Act. Copies of the Code are available from the Commission at 1, Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PN.

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 0.88.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.88 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