UK Offence Report

Powers of FCA and PRA to obtain information for certain purposes

regulation 17(4) of The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions (Investigations) Regulations 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

4 A credit union or other person who fails to comply with

a notice under this section commits an 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 person
Conduct
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 regulation 17(4)?

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 a notice under this section.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions (Investigations) Regulations 2014 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
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
10 March 2014
In force from
6 April 2014
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 repeal section 48 of the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 (c.12) (“1965 Act”) which gave the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) power to require a co-operative or community benefit society (“society”) to produce documents and provide it with information. In place of section 48, the Regulations provide the FCA with certain of the powers of the Secretary of State under Part 14 of Companies Act 1985 (c.6) (“the 1985 Act”) and apply related provisions of Part 14 with modifications. Section 48 and these Regulations also apply to credit unions which are registered under the 1965 Act, see sections 1 and 31(3) of the Credit Unions Act 1979 (c.34). Regulation 3 provides that in deciding whether and how to exercise the powers conferred by these Regulations the FCA must adopt an approach which is based on the principle that those powers should be exercised only to the extent necessary to maintain confidence in societies. The FCA’s new powers include the power to appoint an inspector to investigate the affairs of a society in the circumstances set out in section 432(2) of the 1985 Act, for example where it appears to the FCA that the society may have been conducted with an intention to defraud creditors or for unlawful purposes. The Regulations also apply section 432(1) of the 1985 Act so as to require the FCA to appoint an inspector if the court orders the affairs of a society to be investigated. The Regulations apply sections 446A and 446B of the 1985 Act to give the FCA power to give directions to inspectors, and sections 446C to 446E of the 1985 Act (resignation, removal and replacement of inspectors and obtaining information from former inspectors) to inspections of societies. Section 447 of the 1985 Act is applied so as to give the FCA or an authorised investigator power to require a society to produce documents and provide information. The Regulations also apply section 448 of the 1985 Act, which gives the FCA or an authorised person power to apply to a magistrate for a warrant of entry to premises of a society on the grounds set out in section 448(2), and section 453A of the 1985 Act which gives an inspector or an investigator authorised under section 447 power to require entry to premises (but does not authorise forcible entry). Section 449 of, and Schedules 15C and 15D to, the 1985 Act (relating to the disclosure of information obtained under sections 447 and 453A) are applied in relation to societies, and in addition to the bodies listed in Schedule 15C disclosure can also be made to the Charity Commission, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, the Homes and Communities Agency, the Scottish Housing Regulator and the Welsh Assembly Government. Section 439 of the 1985 Act (expenses of investigating a company’s affairs) is applied so that the expenses of investigation of a society are payable in the first instance by the FCA but recoverable from the society investigated. The sanctions and offences in Part 14 of the 1985 Act are also applied, including those in section 436 (obstruction of inspectors treated as contempt of court), section 450 (punishment for destroying company documents) and section 451 (punishment for providing false information). Regulations 5 to 7 contain amendments in consequence of the repeal of section 48 of the 1965 Act. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no significant impact on the costs of business or the voluntary sector is foreseen.

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.

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