UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 7(2) of The Register of Overseas Entities (Penalties and Northern Ireland Dispositions) Regulations 2023

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 The registrar may not impose

a daily rate penalty unless the person’s conduct constitutes an offence in respect of which

a daily default fine may be imposed in the jurisdiction in which the offence was committed.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 7(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 Register of Overseas Entities (Penalties and Northern Ireland Dispositions) Regulations 2023.

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
22 June 2023
In force from
23 June 2023
Extent
N.I.

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 make provision relating to the register of overseas entities (“the register”) kept by the registrar of companies for England and Wales (“the registrar”) in accordance with Part 1 of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (c. 10). The provisions relate to financial penalties, appeals, and enforcement. The Regulations also amend the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970, to provide for the registration of otherwise unregistrable dispositions in Northern Ireland. Part 2 confers power on the registrar to impose a financial penalty on a person if satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the person has engaged in conduct amounting to an offence under Part 1 of that Act. Regulations 4 and 5 describe the process by which the registrar may issue warning notices and penalty notices. They also set out when the registrar may issue either type of notice, the required contents and information about relevant time periods regulation 6 allows the registrar to vary or revoke the penalty notice as the registrar considers appropriate subject to certain conditions and regulation 7. Regulation 7 provides rules for imposing and calculating penalties under a penalty notice, and states that amounts recovered by the registrar under these Regulations are to be paid into the Consolidated Fund. Part 3 makes provision for the route of appeal against a financial penalty imposed under regulations 5 or 6(3) and sets out the substantive grounds of appeal, procedural rules, and the court’s powers in relation to the appeal. Part 4 makes provision for the enforcement of the financial penalties imposed. Regulation 9 allows the registrar to recover the financial penalty (with any accrued interest) after the expiry of the period stated in the penalty notice, if no appeal has been brought, or, if an appeal has been determined or withdrawn. It also describes how the financial penalty is treated for recovery purposes in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Part 5 amends Schedule 8A to the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970. Schedule 8A was inserted by Schedule 5 to the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 and makes provision about the ownership of registered land by overseas entities and the registrable dispositions they make. Regulation 10(2) inserts new paragraph 4A into Schedule 8A to the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970. Sub-paragraph (1) of new paragraph 4A provides that the Secretary of State may consent to the registration of a disposition that would otherwise be incapable of registration because it would be prohibited by an inhibition entered under paragraph 3 or by paragraph 4 of Schedule 8A. The Secretary of State must be satisfied that, at the time of the disposition, the person to whom it was made did not know, and could not reasonably have been expected to know, that the disposition could not be registered. The Secretary of State must also be satisfied that in all the circumstances it would be unjust for the disposition not to be registered. Sub-paragraph (2) of new paragraph 4A provides that the Secretary of State may make regulations in connection with applications for consent under paragraph 4A(1) and these regulations may, for example, set out who may apply, the evidence required to be produced, and time limits (paragraph 4A(3)). Such regulations are subject to the negative resolution procedure (paragraph 4A(4)). Paragraphs (3) and (4) of regulation 10 introduce a new exception to the prohibition on registration of certain dispositions under paragraphs 3 and 4 of Schedule 8A, where the Secretary of State gives consent to registration of the disposition under new paragraph 4A. Regulation 10(5) amends paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 8A to make clear that the possibility of obtaining consent under paragraph 4A is to be disregarded in determining whether an overseas entity breaches the prohibition on making a registrable disposition of a qualifying estate which cannot be registered under paragraphs 3 or 4 of Schedule 8A.

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 0.75.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “constitutes an offence”
Confidence
0.75 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