UK Offence Report

Liability of persons other than the principal offender

regulation 24(2) of The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

2 Where a body corporate commits an offence and it is proved that the offence was committed— a with the consent or connivance of an officer of the body corporate; or b as a result of the negligence of an officer of the body corporate, the officer, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of the 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 body corporate
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 body corporate 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 24(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008.

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Supply of Machinery (Safety) (Amendment etc.) and the EU Machinery Regulation (Enforcement etc. in Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026
Revoked on
20 January 2027
Made
19 June 2008
In force from
29 December 2009
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 implement Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No. L 157, 9.6.2006, p.24) on machinery, and amending Directive 95/16/EC (“the Machinery Directive”). The Machinery Directive revokes and replaces Directive 98/37/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to machinery (O.J. No. L 207, 23.7.98, p.1) with effect from 29 December 2009. Directive 98/37/EC was implemented in the United Kingdom by the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/3063), as amended, which these Regulations revoke with effect from the same date. The Machinery Directive is a “New Approach” directive. New Approach directives aim to remove technical barriers to trade in particular products by harmonising national health and safety provisions applicable to such products when they are first placed on the market or put into service in the EEA. Products which comply with their requirements are “CE” marked and can be placed on the market and put into service throughout the EEA. The scope of the Regulations is set out in Part 1 (which also deals with other preliminary matters, such as commencement) and Part 2. In particular, regulations 4(2) and 6 set out the types of product which constitute “machinery” and “partly completed machinery” and are subject to the Regulations. Part 3 sets out the key obligations on those who place machinery or partly completed machinery on the market or put it into service (referred to in the Directive as “manufacturers or their authorised representatives” and in the Regulations as “responsible persons”). These obligations include ensuring the safety of products (by reference to the essential health and safety requirements set out in Part 1 of Schedule 2); following a “conformity assessment procedure” (regulations 10 to 12); and documenting their compliance with the requirements of the Directive in various ways (notably by drawing up an “EC declaration of conformity” and affixing the CE marking to the product). Part 4 makes further provision about CE marking. Part 5 is concerned with the activities of “notified bodies”, whose function is to assess the conformity of products with the Regulations. Part 6 makes provision about enforcement. One of the functions of the Machinery Directive is to redefine the boundary between the regulation of machinery in general and the regulation of passenger lifts under the “Lifts Directive” (Directive 95/16/EC, O.J. No. L 213, 7.9.1995, p.1). Regulation 25 makes the changes to the United Kingdom regulations implementing the Lifts Directive (the Lifts Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/831)) which the Machinery Directive requires. The remaining provisions of Part 7 make consequential changes to or avoid overlaps with other pieces of legislation, as well as rectifying some technical drafting defects in regulations implementing other New Approach Directives. An Impact Assessment (IA) in respect of these Regulations is available and a copy can be obtained from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. As these Regulations transpose the Machinery Directive, a transposition note (TN) setting out how the Government will transpose the Directive into UK law has been prepared. Copies of the IA and TN are available from the Business Group, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET. Copies of these documents have been placed in the libraries of both Houses 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.

Other offences in the same 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 “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