UK Offence Report

Publishing restrictions in relation to children

article 4(1) of The Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2016

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

1 A person who fails to comply with an order under section 22(2) of 2016 Act 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 article 4(1)?

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 an order under section 22(2) of 2016 Act.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2016 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
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
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
23 November 2016
In force from
Not determined
Extent
E+W

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 consequence of the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 (“2016 Act”). Article 2 has the effect that a fatal accident inquiry (“FAI”) which would be mandatory by virtue of section 2(4)(a) and (5)(d) of 2016 Act (death of person required to be detained in service custody premises) is treated in the same way as other mandatory FAIs; therefore if the circumstances of a death have been sufficiently established in the course of an inquiry under section 1 of the Inquiries Act 2005 the Lord Advocate may decide that a FAI is not to be held. Article 3 makes equivalent provision for section 5 of 2016 Act (certain deaths and accidents to be treated as occurring in Scotland) for England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The predecessor provision, section 9 of the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 (“the 1976 Act”), is repealed in England and Wales and Northern Ireland by paragraph 4 of the Schedule to this Order. Articles 4 and 5 make equivalent provision for sections 22 and 23 of 2016 Act (publishing restrictions in relation to children; offences by bodies corporate etc.) for England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The predecessor provisions, section 4(4) and (5) of the 1976 Act, are repealed in England and Wales and Northern Ireland by paragraph 4 of the Schedule to this Order. Article 6 provides for a new category of mandatory FAIs where a death occurs in Scotland or the Scottish area of the continental shelf in the course of military service. That article modifies 2016 Act so that these types of mandatory FAIs are treated in a similar fashion to other mandatory FAIs, for example so that where the circumstances of a death have been sufficiently established in the course of other proceedings the Lord Advocate may decide that a FAI is not to be held. Article 6(2) makes provision so that 2016 Act applies to a FAI in relation to a death in the course of military service but some modification of that application is required. Sections 3(1) and 4(2) of 2016 Act identify deaths which give rise to a mandatory FAI by reference to sections 2(3) or (4) of 2016 Act so that reference is expanded in Article 6(2)(b) to include deaths of service personnel. Section 11(1)(d) of 2016 Act makes provision as to who may participate in a FAI into a death under section 2(3) of 2016 Act (death in the course of employment). Only section 11(1)(d)(ii) is relevant in the military service context and this is supplemented by bespoke provision in article 6(3). Article 7(1) introduces the Schedule which provides for modifications of primary and secondary legislation. The modifications to primary legislation include parallel modifications for England and Wales and Northern Ireland to those provided for in schedule 2 to 2016 Act for Scots law. In the case of paragraph 4, the 1976 Act is entirely repealed in Scots law by section 39(1) of 2016 Act. In the case of Part 1 of the Schedule – which concerns merchant shipping legislation – the modifications provided for are not made in 2016 Act and therefore extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. Part 3 concerns the law of England and Wales only and therefore does not extend to Scotland or to Northern Ireland. Article 7(2) is a saving provision to reflect that references in existing legislation to the 1976 Act should continue to have effect for cases where that Act continues to apply. A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors 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