UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006

regulation 2(9) of The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2008

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

9 For regulation 121 (criminal offence), substitute— 121 Any supplier who fails to supply relevant information to the requirer as, when and how required under regulations 117 to 120 shall be guilty of an offence under section 113 of the Administration Act. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 supplier
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 supplier 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 2(9)?

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 supplier fails to supply relevant information to the requirer as, when and how required under regulations 117 to 120.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2008, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 113 of the Administration Act.

penalty is that of the referenced enactment; not stated in this instrument.

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
27 August 2008
In force from
1 October 2008
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 amend the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006, the Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006 and the Council Tax Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006. Regulation 2(4) amends the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 to provide that a person can make a claim for housing benefit by telephone to the Secretary of State where the person is also making a claim by telephone to the Secretary of State for other specified social security benefits. The specified benefits are income support, incapacity benefit, state pension credit, jobseeker’s allowance and employment and support allowance. The regulation also provides that a person can make a claim for housing benefit by telephone when, in relation to other social security benefits, he provides by telephone to the Secretary of State information, evidence, certificates or documents, or notifies any change of circumstance. Regulation 2(4) also provides for the powers of the local authority and the Secretary of State to decide if a claim by telephone for housing benefit has been validly made, what is a defective claim and the consequences of a claim being defective, and the date on which a telephone claim is treated as made. Regulation 2(7) amends the provision which allows a person to amend or withdraw a claim for housing benefit so as to include provision for claims made by telephone to the Secretary of State. Regulation 2(9) removes the reference to the penalties for the criminal offence committed by a landlord or their agent who fails to supply relevant information required by a local authority. The penalties are now set out in the relevant primary legislation, section 113 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. Regulation 2(10) sets out the circumstances in which information relating to housing benefit is to be supplied between local authorities, including persons authorised to exercise benefit functions on behalf of those authorities. These regulations also set out the information to be supplied. Regulation 2 also removes obsolete references to the now defunct ONE pilot and gateway offices. Regulations 3 to 5 make equivalent amendments to the Housing Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006, the Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006 and the Council Tax Benefit (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) Regulations 2006, except that there is no offence in either of the latter two sets of regulations equivalent to that set out in regulation 2(9). An impact assessment has not been published for this instrument as it has no impact on the private or voluntary sectors.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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 is “guilty of an offence”; c10_offence_under_parent_act
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