UK Offence Report

59 Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with— a regulation 26 (requirement to notify relevant local…

regulation 59 of The Adoptions with a Foreign Element 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

59 Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with—

a regulation 26 (requirement to notify relevant local authority);

b regulation 27 (withdrawal of child by local authority); and

c regulation 33 (refusal of court to make Convention adoption order) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding three months, or

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale, or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 59?

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 Adoptions with a Foreign Element 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)
3 months

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2005-12-30); 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
24 February 2005
In force from
30 December 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 make provision relating to adoptions with a foreign element under the Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act 1999 and the Adoption and Children Act 2002. Part 2 makes provision in relation to bringing children into and out of the United Kingdom. Chapter 1 applies where a person intends to bring a child into the United Kingdom for the purposes of adoption or under an external adoption order effected within the period of six months of the making of the adoption. Regulations 3 and 4 provide for the procedure and impose conditions and requirements that must be met before a child is brought into the United Kingdom. Regulation 5 imposes functions on the local authority in respect of bringing a child into the United Kingdom and after the child has entered the United Kingdom. Chapter 2 makes provision in respect of a child being taken out of the United Kingdom for the purposes of adoption. Part 3 provides for adoptions under the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption that was concluded at the Hague on 29 May 1993 (“the Convention”). Chapter 1 sets out the requirements, procedure, recognition and effect of adoptions where a couple or person habitually resident in the British Islands wish to adopt child who is habitually resident in a Convention country outside the British Islands in accordance with the Convention. Chapter 2 sets out the requirements, procedure, recognition and the effect of adoptions in England and Wales where a couple or a person habitually resident in a Convention country outside the British Islands wish to adopt a child who is habitually resident in the British Islands in accordance with the Convention. Chapter 3 makes miscellaneous provisions. Regulations 52 to 58 provide for the modification of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 in respect of adoptions under the Convention. Regulation 59 makes it an offence where a person fails to comply with regulation 26 (requirement to notify relevant local authority), regulation 27 (withdrawal of child by local authority) and regulation 33 (refusal of court to make Convention adoption order). 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