UK Offence Report

Saving for other powers

article 21.2(2) of The Court of Protection Rules 2017

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 Nothing in this Part affects the power of the court to make an order requiring

a person—

a guilty of contempt of court; or

b punishable by virtue of any enactment as if that person had been guilty of contempt of the High Court, to pay

a fine or to give security for good behaviour.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 21.2(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 Court of Protection Rules 2017.

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
26 October 2017
In force from
1 December 2017
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 Rules) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Rules set out the practice and procedure to be followed in the Court of Protection. They revoke the Court of Protection Rules 2007 (S.I. 2007/1744) (the 2007 Rules) and the amendments made to them by the Court of Protection (Amendment) Rules of 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017 (S.I. 2009/582, S.I. 2011/2753, S.I. 2015/548 and S.I. 2017/187) and replace them with a consolidated set of rules arranged in Parts with separately numbered rules within each Part, following the model of the Civil Procedure Rules, Family Procedure Rules and Criminal Procedure Rules. In addition to consolidating the 2007 Rules as amended, the Rules adopt a different order, which was piloted over 2016-2017 by a practice direction under the 2007 Rules (the Practice Direction – Case Management Pilot), and introduce some new rules which were also piloted in that practice direction. The overriding objective, which is to be applied whenever the court exercises its powers under the Rules, or interprets any rule or practice direction, is now set out in Part 1, together with rules about the participation of P and the duties of the court, the parties, legal representatives and unrepresented litigants to further the overriding objective. Part 2 contains interpretation and general provisions which previously formed Part 3 of the 2007 Rules as amended. Part 3 contains the rules about the court’s powers of case management which previously formed Part 5 of the 2007 Rules, together with rules about dealing with applications, directions and allocation to judiciary which were previously in Part 12 of the 2007 Rules, and the main new rule piloted in the Practice Direction – Case Management Pilot concerning allocation of cases to case management pathways. Part 4 contains the rules about hearings which previously formed Part 13 of the 2007 Rules; Part 5 contains the rules which previously formed Part 4 of the 2007 Rules; Parts 6 to 12 contain the rules which previously formed Parts 6 to 10, 10A and 11 of the 2007 Rules; Part 13 contains various rules previously in Part 12 of the 2007 Rules; and Parts 14 to 20 contain the rules which previously formed Parts 14 to 20 of the 2007 Rules as amended, with some amendments in Part 15 concerning experts which were piloted in the Practice Direction – Case Management Pilot. Part 21 replaces Part 21 of the 2007 Rules, which concerned enforcement including orders for committal, with a new Part modelled on provision in Civil Procedure Rules and Family Procedure Rules. Part 22 replaces Part 22 of the 2007 Rules (which contained transitory and transitional provision which has no application to the new Rules) with a new Part containing provision about civil restraint orders previously contained in rule 203 of the 2007 Rules. Part 23 contains the rules which previously formed Part 24 of the 2007 Rules; and Part 24 contains the rules which previously formed Part 23 of the 2007 Rules, together with rules about general methods of enforcement previously in Part 21 of the 2007 Rules, and provision for citation and commencement of the new Rules, revocation of the previous Rules and transitional provision which previously formed Part 1 (with the moving of those rules to Part 24 enabling the promotion of the overriding objective to Part 1 of the new Rules). A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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 0.60.

Basis
the provision says the conduct is “punishable”
Confidence
0.60 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