UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 8(3) of The Gas Appliances (Enforcement) and Miscellaneous Amendments 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

3 A person falls within this paragraph, if that person is guilty of an offence under—

a regulation 7(1)(a) by contravening the requirement in Article 7(3) (failing to keep the technical documentation and the EU declaration of conformity for

10 years); or

b regulation 7(1)(b) by contravening the requirement in Article 9(8) (failing to keep

a copy of the EU declaration of conformity for

10 years and failing to make that document and the technical documentation available to the market surveillance authority on request).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

ulations, it is a defence for a person (“P”) to show that P took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. 2 P may not rely on a defence under paragraph (1) which involves a third party allegation unless P has— a served notice in accordance with paragraph (3); or b obtained leave of the court. 3 The notice must— a give any informat

What would breach regulation 8(3)?

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 Gas Appliances (Enforcement) and Miscellaneous Amendments 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
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

level 5 is unlimited in England and Wales for offences committed on or after 12 March 2015 (LASPO 2012 s.85, S.I. 2015/664).

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
20 March 2018
In force from
21 April 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 provide for the enforcement of Regulation (EU) 2016/426 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on appliances burning gaseous fuels (OJ No L81, 31.3.2016, p99) (“EU Regulation 2016/426”). EU Regulation 2016/426 repeals and replaces Council Directive 2009/142/EC of 30 November 2009 relating to appliances burning gaseous fuels (OJ No L330, 16.12.2009, p10); which was implemented in the United Kingdom by the Gas Appliances (Safety) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/1629) (as amended)). These Regulations revoke SI 1995/1629 with savings (see regulation 2). Regulation 3 designates market surveillance authorities for the purposes of EU Regulation 2016/426, and these Regulations. Regulations 4, 5 and Schedules 1 to 4 provide for enforcement authorities and their powers of enforcement. Offences and penalties are set out in regulations 7 and 8. The remainder of Part 2 provisions deal with related enforcement and procedural issues such as defences, liability of third parties, time limits, service of documents, appeals and compensation, etc. Regulation 18 sets out a process for the Secretary of State to review the regulatory provision contained within these Regulations and publish a report setting out the conclusions of that review. The first such report must be published within five years after the coming into force date of this instrument and subsequent reviews must be carried out every five years after that. Schedule 5 contains amendments to other legislation which are consequential to these Regulations. Schedule 6 contains minor amendments to the Lifts Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1093), the Recreational Craft Regulations 2017 (S.I. 2017/737) and the Radio Equipment Regulations 2017 (S.I. 2017/1206). A Transposition Note is published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside these Regulations on www.legislation.gov.uk. The EU Regulations referred to above are published at http://eur-lex.europa.eu.

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of 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