UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Building Societies Act 1986

paragraph 3 of SCHEDULE 1 of The Statutory Auditors Regulations 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

5 If the building society fails to give the notice required by sub-paragraph (4), the society shall be liable on summary conviction— a to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale; and b in the case of a continuing offence, to an additional fine not exceeding £40 for every day during which the offence continues; and so shall any officer who is also guilty of the 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an officer
Conduct
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 an officer 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 paragraph 3 of SCHEDULE 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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Statutory Auditors Regulations 2017, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

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
28 November 2017
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement obligations in Directive 2014/56/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 amending Directive 2006/43/EC on statutory audits of annual accounts and consolidated accounts (OJ L 157, 09.06.06, p.87) and Regulation (EU) 537/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities and repealing Commission Decision 2005/909/EC (“the Audit Regulation”) (OJ L 158, 27.05.14, p.77). The amended Directive 2006/43/EC is known as “the Audit Directive”. The Audit Regulation is directly applicable, but changes have been made to domestic law to remove inconsistencies between domestic law and the Audit Regulation. Previous transposing regulations were the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/649) and the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors Regulations 2017 (S.I. 2017/516). This instrument completes the transposition for the United Kingdom. Regulation 3 and Schedule 1 make amendments in respect of the transposition for building societies, friendly societies and companies, in particular to provide an effective enforcement mechanism for the rotation and retendering for statutory auditors, and also to provide consistency between the legislative frameworks for these entities. Regulation 4 and Schedule 2 make amendments to the Insurance Accounts Directive (Miscellaneous Insurance Undertakings) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/565) to implement requirements of the Audit Directive and the Audit Regulation in respect of miscellaneous forms of insurance undertaking. This includes insurers that are co-operative or community benefit societies (previously industrial and provident societies) in Great Britain, and industrial and provident societies in Northern Ireland. However, from 6th April 2018, when certain amendments to the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 (c. 24) made by the Credit Unions and Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (c. 16) come into force, new societies in Northern Ireland will be co-operative or community benefit societies. Regulation 5 and Schedule 3 make amendments to the Limited Liability Partnerships (Accounts and Audit) (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1911). This is to give effect to requirements of the Audit Directive and the Audit Regulation for limited liability partnerships which are public-interest entities, and otherwise to mirror the legislative framework for companies to ensure consistency of requirements for the auditing of different types of business entities. Regulations 6 to 13 make consequential amendments to the Companies (Revision of Defective Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/373) to take account of the changes to the requirements in respect of audit reporting made by the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors Regulations of both 2016 and 2017 and by these Regulations. Regulations 15 and 16 make consequential amendments to the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/649). Regulations 17 and 18 make consequential amendments to the Statutory Auditors (Amendment of Companies Act 2006 and Delegation of Functions etc) Order 2012 (S.I. 2012/1741). Regulation 19 and Schedule 4 give effect to a number of revocations and repeals. The Bank Accounts Directive (Miscellaneous Banks) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/567) are revoked for accounting years beginning on or after 30th November 2018, as there will no longer be any miscellaneous banks in existence by that date. There are also consequential revocations and repeals, and the revocation of spent enactments. On 23 June, the EU referendum took place and the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the European Union and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force. During this period the Government will continue to negotiate, implement and apply EU legislation. The outcome of these negotiations will determine what arrangements apply in relation to EU legislation in future once the UK has left the EU. A transposition note is available alongside these Regulations at www.legislation.gov.uk. A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect of transposition of the Audit Directive and the Audit Regulation on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Business Environment Directorate, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET or from www.gov.uk/beis, and is also available alongside the Statutory Auditors and Third Country Auditors Regulations 2016 at www.legislation.gov.uk.

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 →

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction
Confidence
0.72 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