UK Offence Report

Offences relating to failure to notify changes

regulation 18(1) of The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ( EEA Passport Rights) Regulations 2001

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 If a UK firm which is not an authorised person contravenes the prohibition imposed by regulation 11(1), 12(1), 13(1), 15(1), or 16(1) it is guilty of an offence, punishable— a on summary conviction, by a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; or b on conviction on indictment, by a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 authorised 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 authorised 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 18(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 Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ( EEA Passport Rights) Regulations 2001, 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
12 July 2001
In force from
Not determined
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 make provision about the exercise of “passport” rights in accordance with Schedule 3 to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“the Act”). Those are rights under the EC single market directives relating to financial services for an undertaking authorised in one EEA State to establish a branch or provide services in another EEA State. Part I makes provision for citation, commencement and interpretation. Part II prescribes the information which must be provided in connection with the establishment of a branch, or the provision of services, by an EEA firm in the UK in exercise of its passport rights. It also makes provision about the procedure to be followed, and the information to be provided, in the event of changes affecting an EEA firm’s activities in the UK. It provides for the cancellation of EEA firms' qualification for authorisation under the Act in certain circumstances. Part III makes provision about the procedure to be followed, and the information to be provided, when there are changes affecting a UK firm which has exercised its passport rights to establish a branch, or provide services, in another EEA State. Part III also makes provision about the scope of a UK firm’s outward passport in relation to activities which are not regulated activities under the Act: regulation 19 provides that, for the purposes of its passport rights, a UK firm is treated as being authorised to carry on such activities provided UK law does not prevent it from carrying them on in the EEA State in question. Part IV makes transitional provision relating to cases where the procedures applying to changes in activities carried on pursuant to passport rights had been partly completed at commencement.

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 0.92.

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