UK Offence Report

Enforcement of section 28UB and 28UC

regulation 28VA(7) of The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) (Further and Higher Education) Regulations 2006

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

7 Subsection (1) does not apply to an act which constitutes an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 28VA(7)?

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 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) (Further and Higher Education) Regulations 2006.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
29 June 2006
In force from
1 September 2006
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 (in Great Britain) the provisions of Council Directive 2000/78/EC (OJ No. L 303, 2.12.2000, p.16), establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (“the Directive”), so far as it relates to disability discrimination but only insofar as the Directive’s obligations impact upon Chapter 2 of Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (c. 50) (“the Act”). The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/1673), which came into force on 1st October 2004, implemented the Directive’s obligations with respect to Parts 2 and 3 of the Act. New section 28R(3A) of the Act prohibits discrimination as regards the conferment of qualifications by educational institutions or the arrangements made for the purpose of conferring such qualifications. (Regulation 5). The institutions made subject to duties under Chapter 2 of Part 4 of the Act must be determined by reference to Schedule 4B and 4C of that Act. New sections 28R(3B) and 28SA prohibit harassment by relevant institutions and define what harassment means. (Regulation 5 and 7). New section 28S(2) imposes a duty to make reasonable adjustments. The extent and meaning of that duty is set out in new sections 28T(1) to (1D). (Regulation 6 and 8). New sections 28S(5) to (11) amend the definition of “discrimination” and set out the ambit of the justification defence for an act which constitutes discrimination. (Regulation 6). New sections 28S(9) and (10) prohibit direct discrimination and define what that term means. New section 28UA prohibits discrimination and harassment and imposes duties to make reasonable adjustments in relationships which have come to an end, and new section 28UB prohibits instructions and pressure to discriminate. (Regulations 12 &13). New section 28UC prohibits publishing discriminatory advertisements (Regulation 14). Enforcement of sections 28UB and 28UC will be in accordance with section 25 of the Equality Act 2006, and until that provision comes into force, new sections 28VA and 28VB set out the transitional enforcement procedure for those sections. 28UB and 28UC, until section 25 of the Equality Act 2006 comes into force (Regulations 22 and 23). New section 28V(1A) makes provision for the burden of proof in proceedings brought under Chapter 2 and these Regulations also include transitional provisions concerning the burden of proof. (Regulation 3 and 15). Part 6 of these Regulations substitutes a new Schedule 4C into the Act to implement the Directive’s obligations with respect to further and higher education provided by local education authorities and, in Scotland, further education provided by education authorities. These Regulations make provision for commencement on the day after they are made so far as enabling anything to be done for the purposes of preparing and bringing into force on or after 1st September 2006 a code of practice under section 53A of the 1995 Act concerning any provisions of that Act as it will have effect on or after that date by virtue of these Regulations. Otherwise, the Regulations come into force on 1st September 2006. (Regulation 1). A copy of the Transposition Note in relation to the implementation of the Directive for Chapter 2 of Part 4 of the Act may be obtained from Equality and Diversity Unit, Department for Education and Skills, Caxton House, 6-12 Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA; and a copy has also been placed in the library of each house of Parliament.

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.

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 0.75.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “constitutes an offence”
Confidence
0.75 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