UK Offence Report

Enforcement in Great Britain

regulation 9(5) of The Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2003

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

5 If any person who is not an officer of an enforcement authority purports to act as such under paragraph

8 or this paragraph he shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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; other provisions of the same instrument use a mens rea word while this one does not (the Cundy v Le Cocq contrast).

What would breach regulation 9(5)?

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 Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2003.

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 (2003-12-29); 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
3 December 2003
In force from
29 December 2003
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 amend the Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Regulations 2000 as amended (“the Principal Regulations”) which implemented Directive 1999/5/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment and the mutual recognition of their conformity (O.J. L91, 7.4.1999, p10). Under the Principal Regulations certain functions relating to enforcement are carried out by the Secretary of State at the Radiocommunications Agency and the Director General of Telecommunications. Following the creation of OFCOM and the expiry of the transitional period provided for under section 401 of the Communications Act 2003 those functions are to be carried out by OFCOM and Regulation 2 amends the Principal Regulations to give effect to this change. Enforcement by weights and measures authorities in Great Britain and district councils in Northern Ireland remains as provided for in the Principal Regulations. In amending the Principal Regulations, the opportunity has been taken, in the interests of transparency and clarity, to set out the enforcement provisions in full in Schedule 9 rather than by reference, as was the case under the Principal Regulations. Thus Part II of the Schedule sets out specific powers of the enforcement authorities. The provisions provide powers to issue suspension notices, make test purchases, powers of search, powers to require production of information, for customs officers to detain apparatus, and for forfeiture of apparatus. There are also included provisions for compensation, appeals against suspension and detention of apparatus, disclosure of information, offences of contravening suspension orders, obstruction of an authorised officer and savings for certain privileges. Regulation 2(5)(b) applies additionally section 98(1)–(3) of the Communications Act 2003 to the enforcement of regulations 7 and 13 of the Principal Regulations to provide for a shorter time limit to be set in urgent cases where compliance is required in respect of a notification under section 94 of that Act. Regulation 2(6) inserts a new regulation 18A providing a duty for an enforcement authority to inform the Secretary of State of any action taken by it to prohibit or restrict the supply or taking into service of relevant apparatus to enable her to pass this information to the Commission in accordance with the requirements in Directive 1999/5/EC. A full Regulatory Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the costs of business.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same 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