UK Offence Report

Power to prohibit the entry into credit agreements

article 1(11) of The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Order 2014

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

11 An institution contravening a prohibition imposed under this paragraph is guilty of an offence and liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 institution
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 institution 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 1(11)?

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 Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Order 2014.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
13 February 2014
In force from
Not determined
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 Order makes provision in relation to the regulation of consumer credit under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“the Act”). Part 2 of the Order amends the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, S.I. 2001/544, to specify additional activities which are to be treated as “regulated activities” for the purposes of the Act, and to provide for exclusions from various regulated activities. A person who carries on a regulated activity in the United Kingdom must be authorised under the Act to carry out the activity or an exempt person (see section 19 of the Act). The Order also makes various consequential, transitional and supplemental provisions in consequence of those provisions and of provisions made by the Financial Services Act 2012, which amended the Act, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (No.2) Order 2013, S.I 2013/1881, and the Financial Services Act 2012 (Consumer Credit) Order 2013, S.I. 2013/1882. Part 3 of the Order amends primary legislation, and applies procedural provisions of the Act to various applications made under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Part 4 of the Order amends secondary legislation and makes certain saving and transitional provisions. Part 5 of the Order provides for the Financial Conduct Authority to undertake a review of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, in so far as it has not been repealed by the legislation referred to above. A full impact assessment of the effect that this Order will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from Her Majesty’s Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ or on www.gov.uk and is published alongside the Order on www.legislation.gov.uk.

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”
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