UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 7(1) of The Register of Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes Regulations 1997

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 any person, without reasonable cause, fails to comply with the condition specified in regulation 4(1), 5, 8(2) or (3) he is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

5 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 7(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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Register of Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes Regulations 1997, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1997-04-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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 1997
In force from
1 April 1997
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 replace the Register of Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes Regulations 1990 (“the 1990 Regulations”) which are now revoked and provide that there shall continue to be a register of occupational and personal pension schemes. They also make provision for the appointment of the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority as the Registrar of such schemes. Regulations 2, 3, 4(2), 6(1), (3) to (8), 8 and 9 extend to Northern Ireland, as does regulation 1 in so far as it applies to those regulations. Provision for Northern Ireland corresponding to other provisions of these Regulations will be contained in separate regulations to be made by the Department of Health and Social Services for Northern Ireland. Regulation 1 provides for the citation, extent, commencement and interpretation of the Regulations. Regulation 2 provides for the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority to be the Registrar and allows for the appointment of an agent to perform any of the functions of the Registrar. Regulation 3 requires the Registrar to continue to compile and maintain the register of occupational and personal pension schemes established under the 1990 Regulations and specifies what information is to be contained in it. Regulation 4 imposes a duty on the trustees of a scheme to supply information to the Registrar. Regulation 5 requires notification to the Registrar of any change in the information supplied under regulation 4. Regulation 6 specifies the persons who are to be supplied with information held on the register, and the circumstances in which that may be done. Regulation 7(1) makes it an offence punishable by a fine for a person to breach these Regulations by failing, without reasonable cause, to provide information to the Registrar or to notify the Registrar of a change in the information provided. Regulation 7(2) provides for the imposition of penalties by the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority where conditions upon which information is supplied by the Registrar are not complied with. Regulation 8 makes transitional provisions. Revocations are made by regulation 9 and the Schedule. An assessment of the compliance cost for employers of the measures arising from the Pensions Act 1995, including these Regulations, has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies can be obtained by post from the Department of Social Security, Private Pensions Directorate, 11th floor, The 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