UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005

article 2(5) of The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 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

5 In section 72 (offences)– a in subsection (5), at the beginning, insert “Subject to subsection (5A),”; and b after subsection (5) insert– 5A Where a person is guilty of an offence under subsection (1), (3) or (4)(e) or (f) in respect of relevant premises which are– a a ship; b premises occupied solely for the purposes of the armed forces of the Crown; c premises occupied solely by any visiting force or an international headquarters or defence organisation designated for the purposes of the International Headquarters and Defence Organisations Act 1964 (c. 5); or d premises which are situated within premises occupied solely for the purposes of the armed forces of the Crown but which are not themselves so occupied, paragraph (a) of subsection (5) shall apply as if for “£20,000” there were substituted “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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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.

What would breach article 2(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 Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2005.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Scotland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (CP(S)A 1995 s.225(2)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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 July 2005
In force from
Not determined
Extent
S

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 and modifications in consequence of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 (asp 5) (“the 2005 Act”). Article 2 of the Order inserts provisions into and makes modifications of the 2005 Act that enable relevant authorities (as defined in section 6 of the 2005 Act) to exercise their powers at sea, in the territorial sea not adjacent to Scotland and beyond the territorial sea of the United Kingdom, and to charge for those activities. Article 2 applies Part 3 of the 2005 Act (fire safety) to premises occupied by armed forces of the Crown, visiting forces or an international headquarters or defence organisation designated for the purposes of the International Headquarters and Defence Organisations Act 1964 (c. 5), and those which are situated within premises occupied solely for the purposes of the armed forces of the Crown but which are not themselves so occupied. In addition, article 2 applies Part 3 to ships and hovercraft except in respect of normal ship-board activities of a ship’s crew which are carried out solely by the crew under the direction of the master. It also provides that the definition of “relevant premises” in section 78 of the 2005 Act includes these premises. Article 2 also confers the functions of an enforcing authority under the 2005 Act upon the Health and Safety Executive and the fire service maintained by the Secretary of State for Defence. Article 3 provides for the modification of the enactments specified in the Schedule to the Order. Part 1 of the Schedule sets out modifications of public general Acts. Part 2 sets out modifications of subordinate legislation.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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