UK Offence Report

1 An early years provider who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with the requirements of…

regulation 11(1) of The Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2007

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 An early years provider who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with the requirements of regulation 7(1),

8 or 9(2) is guilty of an offence and is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
Fault element
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses so far as is reasonably practicable, reasonably practicable; which element that governs was not determined; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

1 An early years provider who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with the requirements of regulation 7(1), 8 or 9(2) is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 11(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person fails to comply with the requirements of regulation 7(1), 8 or 9(2).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2007 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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 (2008-09-01); 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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Early Years Foundation Stage (Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012
Revoked on
1 September 2012
Made
20 June 2007
In force from
1 September 2008
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations, made under the Childcare Act 2006, specify the welfare requirements that early years providers must secure in providing early years provision. Together with the “learning and development requirements” specified under section 39(1)(a) of the Childcare Act 2006, these form the “Early Years Foundation Stage”. The “Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage”, published by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (ISBN 978-1-84478-921-4) is given the force of law. Copies of this document are available from DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottingham, NG15 0DJ (Tel 0845 6022260) Ref: 00012-2007PCK-EN, email dfes@prolog.uk.com or online from www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications. Regulation 7 prohibits the use of corporal punishment by early years providers to children in their care. Regulation 8 requires early years providers to notify the Chief Inspector of certain events (specified in the Schedule to the Regulations), and the procedure to be followed in providing notification. Regulations 9 and 10 set out the procedure to be followed by the Chief Inspector where an early years provider has failed or is failing to comply with the welfare requirements. Regulation 11 makes it an offence for an early years provider who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with the requirements set out in regulations 7, 8 and 9(2). A regulatory impact assessment has been prepared for these Regulations. It is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside the instrument on the OPSI website http://www.opsi.gov.uk.

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction
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