UK Offence Report

1 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of regulations 5(1) to (7), 6, 7(1)…

regulation 29(1) of The Adoption Support Agencies (England) and Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) 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 A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of regulations 5(1) to (7), 6, 7(1) and (4), 8(2), 9(1), 10, 11, 12(1) and (2), 13, 14,

16 to 18, 19(1), 20, 21(1), 22, 23, 24(1) and (2), 25,

26 and 27(1) 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 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 29(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 Adoption Support Agencies (England) and Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2005, 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
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2005-10-28); 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
30 September 2005
In force from
28 October 2005
Extent
E

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 are made partly under the Care Standards Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”) and partly under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (“the 2002 Act”). The 2000 Act established a new regulatory system for care services in England and Wales; section 8(3) of the 2002 Act amends the 2000 Act with the effect that a person cannot carry on or manage an adoption support agency without being registered under Part 2 of the 2000 Act. Section 2(6) of the 2002 Act provides that counselling, advice and information and any other services prescribed by regulations, in relation to adoption, are adoption support services. Regulation 3 of these Regulations prescribes further services which are adoption support services for the purposes of these Regulations. Regulation 4 provides for exceptions from the undertakings that are adoption support agencies. Regulations 5 and 6 make provision for the statement of purpose and children’s guide. Each adoption support agency must have a statement of purpose setting out the aims and objectives of the agency. The statement of purpose must be kept under review and revised when necessary. The agency must be carried on in a manner that is consistent with the statement of purpose. An agency which provides services to children must produce a written guide to the agency which is suitable for children. Regulations 7 to 11 make provision about the persons carrying on and managing an adoption support agency, and require a manager to be appointed for the agency in certain circumstances (regulation 8). Provision is made for the fitness of the manager, in particular by the requirement that satisfactory information be obtained in relation to the matters specified in Schedule 2 (regulation 9). Regulation 7 requires an agency that is not an individual or a partnership to nominate a responsible individual in respect of whom this information must also be available. Regulation 10 imposes general requirements in relation to the proper conduct of an adoption support agency, and the need for appropriate training. Regulations 12 to 23 make further provision about the conduct of an adoption support agency, in particular as to the protection of children (regulation 12), providing services appropriate to a user’s needs (regulation 13), record-keeping in relation to services provided (regulation 14), adoption case records (regulation 15), complaints (regulations 16 and 17), staffing (including record-keeping in relation staff) and fitness of premises (regulations 18 to 23). The provision in regulation 15 obliges an adoption support agency that has been a voluntary adoption agency and has retained its adoption case records to comply with provisions in the Adoption Agencies Regulations 1983 about the retention and treatment of those records. Regulation 24 provides for the registered provider and registered manager to give notice of the events described in Schedule 4 to the persons specified in that Schedule. Regulation 25 imposes requirements relating to an adoption support agency’s financial position. Regulations 26 to 28 provide for the giving of notices to the registration authority and the appointment of liquidators. Regulation 29 provides for offences for contravention of, or failure to comply with, provisions in the Regulations. Regulation 30 provides that where these Regulations place a requirement on more than one person, if one of those who is obliged to meet that requirement does so, the other person is not also obliged to meet that requirement. Regulation 31 amends the National Care Standards Commission (Registration) Regulations 2001 to require the Commission for Social Care Inspection to keep a register of adoption support agencies containing the particulars specified in Schedule 7 to the 2001 Regulations, and to add to the register of voluntary adoption agencies categories of voluntary adoption agency that provide adoption support services in addition to adoption services. Regulation 32 amends the National Care Standards Commission (Fees and Frequency of Inspections) (Adoption Agencies) Regulations 2003 (“the 2003 Regulations”). The amendments provide for the fees to be paid on an application for registration in respect of an adoption support agency, for the variation or removal of any condition that is in force in relation to a registration and for the payment of annual fees. The 2003 Regulations are also amended to provide for premises used by an adoption support agency to be inspected by the Commission for Social Care Inspection at least once in every 3 years. Regulation 34 amends the Adoption Agencies Regulations 1983 to enable adoption agencies to extend the term of office of certain members of adoption panels, and to allow any voluntary adoption agency that is planning to become an adoption support agency to retain its adoption case records. Regulation 35 amends the Adoption Information and Intermediary Services (Pre-Commencement Adoptions) Regulations 2005 so that an adoption support agency holding information in relation to an adopted person does not provide intermediary services to that person in simply providing him with information about his adoption. A regulatory impact assessment has been prepared for these Regulations and a copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies of the regulatory impact assessment can be obtained from the Department for Education and Skills' website http://www.dfes.gov.uk/ria/.

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