UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

paragraph 1(1) of SCHEDULE 4 of The Energy Information (Household Air Conditioners) (No. 2) Regulations 2005

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—

a regulation 6 (placing on the market: technical documentation);

b regulation 7 (supplier’s duties in respect of labels);

c regulation 8 (supplier’s duties in respect of the information sheet);

d regulation 10 (supplier’s duties in respect of the accuracy of labels and information sheets);

e regulation 11 (dealer’s duty in respect of

a displayed regulated appliance);

f regulation 12 (information in respect of mail order and other distance sales);

g regulation 14 (misleading information);

h paragraph

5 of this Schedule (obstruction of, and false statements to, authorised officers).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

ions, 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 (Household Air Conditioners) (No. 2) Regulations 2005.
  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
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
28 June 2005
In force from
30 June 2005
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) as it applies to household air conditioners, and Commission Directive 2002/31/EC (implementing Council Directive 92/75/EEC with regard to energy labelling of household air conditioners). These directives apply to the EEA (EEA Joint Committee Decisions 7/94 and 123/2004 respectively). Regulation 18 revokes the Energy Information (Household Air Conditioners) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/750), subject to certain transitional provisions. It also revokes the Energy Information (Household Air Conditioners) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/1531), in which there were errors, before they come into force. The Regulations apply to air conditioners as specified in regulation 3, subject to the exclusions contained in that regulation and regulation 4. The exclusion in regulation 4(1) applies if the air conditioner was placed on the market anywhere in the Community (as defined in regulation 2(2)) before 1st August 2005. By regulation 5, the information referred to in regulations 6 to 8 must be obtained, where relevant, through testing against the harmonised standard EN 14511. A supplier (as defined in regulation 2(2)) must establish technical documentation before placing the air conditioner on the market (regulation 6). Suppliers have a duty to provide labels to dealers free of charge (regulation 7 and Schedules 1 and 3) and dealers (as defined in regulation 2(2)) have a duty to attach such labels to regulated appliances (also defined in regulation 2(2)) (regulation 11). Suppliers are obliged to provide free of charge an information sheet (regulation 8 and Schedule 2), which must be included in any product brochure where provided, or, in other cases, with any other information provided. The Regulations make clear that suppliers are deemed to have consented to that information being published and they have a duty to ensure the accuracy of such information (regulations 9 and 10). Regulation 12 covers distance selling and requires that certain information be provided. Regulation 13 provides that, where information is to be provided in a language other than English, Annex V to the Air Conditioners Directive (Translation of Terms to be used in the Label and Fiche) is to be used for the purpose of translating terms into that other language. Regulation 14 prohibits the provision of misleading information relating to energy information. Regulation 16 and Schedule 4 deal with enforcement. Regulation 17 contains transitional provisions. A Regulatory Impact Assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business has been prepared and placed in the library of each House of Parliament, together with Transposition Notes setting out how the main elements of Council Directive 92/75/EEC and Commission Directive 2002/31/EC (as corrected) are transposed in these Regulations. Copies of these documents may be obtained from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Environment Business and Consumers Division, Zone 6/D11, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE. Copies of British Standard BS EN 14511, which transposes EN 14511 referred to in these Regulations, may be obtained from any of the sales outlets operated by the British Standards Institution, by post from the British Standards Institution, Customer Services, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AJ, by telephone to 020 8996 9001, or by email to orders@bsi-global.com.

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