UK Offence Report

Prosecution of offences in transitional cases

article 7(2) of The Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 8, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 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

2 For this purpose an offence is committed partly before and partly after the commencement of the new law if

a relevant event occurs before commencement and another relevant event occurs after commencement.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 article 7(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 Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 8, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 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
Status not determined
Made
5 November 2008
In force from
1 October 2009
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This is the eighth Commencement Order made under the Companies Act 2006 (c.46) (“the Act”). Part 47 and certain provisions in Parts 43, 44 and 46 of the Act came into force on the passing of the Act. Article 3 brings into force on 1st October 2009 provisions about— a company’s formation and constitution the capacity of a company, powers of directors to bind it and formalities of doing business under the law of England and Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland a company’s name, including change of name and similarity to other names a company’s registered office re-registration as a means of altering a company’s status a company’s members directors, including the register of directors and protecting directors’ residential addresses from disclosure the register of secretaries a company’s share capital the acquisition by a limited company of its own shares a company’s annual return company charges dissolution of a company and restoration to the register UK companies not formed under companies legislation overseas companies the registrar of companies offences under the Act and other companies legislation company records service addresses disqualification of foreign directors business names the extension of the Act and certain other legislation to Northern Ireland. Once the provisions of the Act which will be brought into force by this Order on 1st October 2009 are in force, all the provisions of the Act will be in force other than sections 327(2)(c) and 330(6)(c) and Part 2 of Schedule 9. Article 4 and Schedule 1 bring some of the repeals in the Act into force. Article 5 and Schedule 2 make transitional provisions and savings. Article 6 revokes all the transitional adaptations that were made to the Act by earlier Commencement Orders. These were required when not all the provisions in the Act were in force but are not now needed. Article 7 makes transitional provisions relating to the prosecution of offences. Article 8 ensures that the operation of the continuity of the law provision in section 1297 of the Act is not affected by the other provisions of the Order, except where that is the intention.

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 0.55.

Basis
c06_offence_committed
Confidence
0.55 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