UK Offence Report

I/We understand that I/we commit an offence if I/we supply any information to a local housing authority in…

paragraph 4 of SCHEDULE 2 of The Licensing and Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation and Other Houses (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) 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

I/We understand that I/we commit an offence if I/we supply any information to a local housing authority in connection with any of their functions under any of Parts 1 to 4 of the Housing Act 2004 that is false or misleading and which I/we know is false or misleading or am/are are reckless as to whether it is false or misleading.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an local housing authority
Conduct
making a false or misleading statement
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 an local housing authority 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 paragraph 4 of SCHEDULE 2?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Licensing and Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation and Other Houses (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) Regulations 2006.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

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
15 February 2006
In force from
6 April 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 make provision in respect of a number of miscellaneous matters relating to Part 2 (licensing of HMOs, Part 3 (selective licensing), Chapters 1 and 2 of Part 4 (management orders) and section 254 (meaning of HMO) of the Housing Act 2004 (“the Act”). They— specify the circumstances when persons are to be regarded as forming a single household for the purposes of deciding whether a building is an HMO within any of the descriptions in section 254 of the Act (regulations 3 and 4); provide that migrant workers, seasonal workers and asylum seekers are to be treated as occupying certain premises as their only or main residence (regulation 5); specify a description of buildings that are not HMOs for the purposes of the Act (excluding Part 1) (regulation 6 and Schedule 1); make provision about applications for licences under Part 2 or 3 of the Act, including the information that must be supplied with an application (regulation 7 and Schedule 2); specify the standards to be applied when determining the suitability of a house for multiple occupation for licensing under Part 2 of the Act (regulation 8 and Schedule 3); specify the manner in which designations of areas under Part 2 or 3 of the Act, and revocations of such designations, must be published (regulations 9 and 10); and specify the information that must be contained in registers held by local housing authorities of licences granted under Part 2 or 3, temporary exemption notices that exempt a house from licensing and of management orders (regulations 11, 12 and 13). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this Order will have on the costs of business is available from the Licensing Branch, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2/G9 Eland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU (telephone 0207 944 3149, e-mail licensing@odpm.gsi.gov.uk).

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits 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