UK Offence Report

Requirements in connection with publication of accounts

article 81A(6) of The Building Societies Act 1986 (International Accounting Standards and Other Accounting Amendments) Order 2004

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

6 A building society which contravenes any provision of this section, and any officer of it who is in default, is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an officer
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 an officer 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 article 81A(6)?

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 Building Societies Act 1986 (International Accounting Standards and Other Accounting Amendments) Order 2004, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
21 December 2004
In force from
21 December 2004
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes provision to give effect to: Regulation (EC) 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the application of international accounting standards (OJ L 243, 11/09/2002 p.1 – 4) (“the IAS Regulation”), in relation to building societies; and Parts of Directive 2003/51/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directives 78/660/EEC, 83/349/EEC, 86/635/EEC and 91/674/EEC as regards modernising the annual and consolidated accounts of certain types of companies, banks and other financial institutions to bring the preparation of those accounts more into line with international accounting standards (OJ L 178, 17/07/2003, p.16 – 22) (“the Modernisation Directive”), in relation to building societies. The Parts of the Modernisation Directive implemented by this Order, are those which require amendments to be made to the Building Societies Act 1986. The remainder of the directive will be implemented for building societies by amendments to the Building Societies (Accounts and Related Provisions) Regulations 1998. This Order amends Part 8 of the Building Societies Act 1986 (“the 1986 Act) which deals with accounts and audit. Article 1 applies the provisions of the Order to building society’s financial years beginning on or after 1st January 2005. Article 2 of the Order inserts new sections 72A to 72I into the 1986 Act. These new sections give full effect to the IAS Regulation and Member State options in it, by enabling all building societies to use adopted international accounting standards to prepare their individual and their group accounts. Article 4 of the IAS Regulation requires undertakings whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market to prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with international accounting standards adopted pursuant to the Regulation. Article 5 of the IAS Regulation contains options for Member States whereby they may– permit undertakings to use adopted international accounting standards to prepare their individual accounts; permit those undertakings who do not have securities which are traded on a regulated market, to use adopted international accounting standards to prepare their group accounts. These options have been taken up and implemented for building societies by the insertion of these new sections into Part 8 of the 1986 Act. Part 3 of the Order implements those parts of the Modernisation of Accounts Directive that require amendments to the 1986 Act. Articles 3 and 4 amend section 75 of and insert a new section 75A into the 1986 Act to modify the requirements regarding the contents of the directors' report. The report must now contain an analysis of the development, performance and position of the building society and its connected undertakings (if any). It must also contain a description of the principal risks and uncertainties facing the society’s business. Article 5 amends section 78 of the 1986 Act to change the requirements regarding the contents of auditors' report. The report must now state what financial reporting framework has been applied in preparation of the accounts. Article 6 inserts a new section 78A into the 1986 Act which deals with the requirements for an auditors' report to be signed and dated. Article 7 inserts a new section 81A into the 1986 Act which imposes requirements on a building society about what auditors' information should be included when it publishes its accounts. Article 8 and the Schedule to the Order deal with consequential amendments to the 1986 Act. Article 9 includes transitional provisions. Paragraph 2 of the Schedule amends section 6 of the 1986 Act to provide definitions of “fixed assets” and “liquid assets” for those building societies which switch from producing their accounts under the Building Societies Act framework (where these terms are defined in regulations) to the international accounting standards framework (where these terms are not defined). Paragraph 5 of the Schedule inserts new sections 72J and 72K into the 1986 Act which impose requirements on building societies to disclose information in the notes to their accounts– in relation to benefits paid to directors and other officers of the society; in relation to employees of the society; in relation to undertakings that are related to the society. The details of the information required are set out in two new Schedules to the 1986 Act, Schedules 10A and 10B which are inserted by this Order. The requirement to disclose this information in the notes to a society’s accounts was previously included in the Building Societies (Accounts and Related Provisions) Regulations 1998. It has now been included in the Act so that it will continue to apply to those societies which produce their accounts in accordance with adopted international accounting standards. Paragraph 6 of the Schedule inserts a new section 81B into the 1986 Act which deals with interpretation of terms used in Part 8 of the 1986 Act. Paragraph 7 of the Schedule inserts new definitions, arising out of the new provisions inserted into the 1986 Act, into section 119 of that Act. Two different statutory powers are used to make this Order. Articles 3 and 4 are made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 and all the remaining provisions of the Order are made under section 104 of the Building Societies Act 1986. A regulatory impact assessment has been prepared in relation to this Order. A copy may be obtained from the General Insurance, Mutuals and Inclusion Team, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ. A copy of the transposition note showing how the main provisions of this Directive (as it applies to building societies) will be transposed into UK law is available from the same address. Both documents are also available on the Treasury website (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk). Copies of both these documents have been placed in the library of both Houses of Parliament.

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