UK Offence Report

Amendment of regulation 11 (offences and penalties)

regulation 8(1) of The Energy Information (Amendment) Regulations 2018

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 For regulation 11(1), substitute— 1 It is an offence for— a a dealer to fail to comply with any of the obligations placed on the dealer by virtue of the Articles listed in regulation 4(1); b a supplier to fail to comply with any of the obligations placed on the supplier by virtue of the Articles listed in regulation 4(2). .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 dealer
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 dealer 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 8(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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Energy Information (Amendment) Regulations 2018, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ 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
27 February 2018
In force from
29 March 2018
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 amend the Energy Information Regulations 2011 (S.I. 2011/1524) (“the 2011 Regulations”). The 2011 Regulations implemented Directive 2010/30/EU (“the Directive”), which is replaced by Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 of the European Parliament and of the Council setting a framework for energy labelling and repealing Directive 2010/30/EU (“the EU Energy Labelling Regulation”). In consequence of the coming into force of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation, these Regulations replace references to the Directive with references to the EU Energy Labelling Regulation and alter the domestic enforcement regime for the labelling of energy-related products. Regulation 4 amends regulation 3 of the 2011 Regulations and applies the 2011 Regulations to energy-related products (which is defined in Article 2 of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation). It amends the list of matters to which the 2011 Regulations do not apply in line with Article 1(2) of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation. Regulation 5 amends regulation 4 of the 2011 Regulations to designate the market surveillance authorities for the obligations imposed on suppliers and dealers by the EU Energy Labelling Regulation. These obligations supersede the obligations in Parts 3 and 4 of the 2011 Regulations, which are revoked by regulation 7. Regulation 8 replaces the criminal offence in regulation 11 of the 2011 Regulations with a criminal offence for contravention of the obligations placed on suppliers or dealers by the provisions of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation listed in regulation 4 of the 2011 Regulations, as amended. Regulation 13 revokes paragraph 2 of Schedule 4 which is superseded by Article 9(2) of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation (procedure at national level for dealing with products presenting a risk). A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. An impact assessment was prepared prior to the adoption of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation and an assessment of costs and benefits will be carried out prior to each of the product-specific EU measures being adopted by the European Commission.

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 →

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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