UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

paragraph 1(1) of SCHEDULE 4 of The Energy Information (Lamps) Regulations 1999 (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

1 It shall be an offence to contravene or fail to comply with– regulation 4 (suppliers' duties in respect of labels); regulation 5 (suppliers' duties in respect of product brochures and information notices); regulation 8 (suppliers' duties in respect of technical documentation); regulation 9 (dealers' duties); regulation 10 (mail order and other distance sales); regulation 11 (misleading information); paragraph

5 of this Schedule (obstruction of authorised officers and false statements); paragraph

6 of this Schedule (power of enforcement authority to require technical documentation); paragraph 8(8) of this Schedule (prohibition of purported search and seizure by unauthorised person); or paragraph 12(1) of this Schedule (restrictions on disclosure of information).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

tions it shall be a defence for that person to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.

What would breach paragraph 1(1) of SCHEDULE 4?

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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Energy Information (Lamps) Regulations 1999.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown 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 (1999-07-01); 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
26 May 1999
In force from
1 July 1999
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 implement Council Directive 92/75/EEC (on the indication by labelling and standard product information of the consumption of energy and other resources by household appliances) and Commission Directive 98/11/EC (implementing Council Directive 92/75/EEC with regard to energy labelling of household lamps). The lamps to which the Regulations apply are those specified in the definition of “regulated lamp” in regulation 2(1), other than those excluded by regulation 3(2). The suppliers of regulated lamps are required by regulation 4 to print on the packaging of every regulated lamp a label (defined in regulation 2(1)) in the form, and containing the information, indicated in Schedule 1. Where that is not possible because of the size of the packaging, the supplier may attach to the packaging of the lamp a label containing the relevant information. Regulation 5 requires suppliers who provide product brochures to include in the brochures the information that would otherwise be displayed on the label. Where a supplier does not provide a product brochure, he must supply with the lamp information equivalent to that which would have been provided on a label. Information supplied in either of these ways is referred to in the Regulations as an information notice (defined in regulation 2(1)). The supplier is deemed to consent to the publication of the information given in a label or information notice (regulation 6), and is required, by regulations 7 and 8, to take sole responsibility for the accuracy of the information given in labels and information notices, and to establish technical documentation for the purpose of enabling the accuracy of that information to be assessed. A dealer who displays a regulated lamp is required to ensure that the lamp or its packaging bears a label containing the appropriate Schedule 1 information. He is relieved of this duty if he provides the information as part of the display, for example, on the shelf on which the lamps are displayed. Where a dealer offers for sale a regulated lamp by mail order or in other circumstances in which potential purchasers cannot be expected to see the lamp, regulation 10 requires the dealer to provide relevant information as determined in Schedules 2 and 3. Regulation 11 prohibits the display of labels, marks, symbols and inscriptions relating to energy consumption which, although not complying with the Regulations, would be taken to comply and would be likely to mislead or confuse. The prohibition does not apply to labels etc. displayed under a Community or national environmental labelling scheme. Regulation 12 provides for the enforcement of the Regulations by local weights and measures authorities, except in Northern Ireland where the enforcement authority is the Department of Economic Development (“enforcement authority” is defined in regulation 2(1)). Provisions about offences, penalties and other matters relating to the enforcement of the Regulations are contained in Schedule 4. Regulation 13 makes transitional provision; until 31st December 2000 the Regulations do not apply to the supply or display of regulated lamps or to the distribution of product brochures or the other printed communications to which regulation 10 applies. A Regulatory Impact Assessment, estimating the financial impact of the Regulations on the suppliers of, and dealers in, regulated lamps, can be obtained from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 3DE.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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