UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023

the instrument as a whole of The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) 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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section

35 of the Building Act 1984. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Not determined

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (England) Regulations 2023.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 35 of the Building Act 1984.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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
9 August 2023
In force from
1 October 2023
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.

This instrument is part of a number of Regulations which implement Part 3 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (c. 30). Section 91ZA of the Building Act 1984 (as inserted by section 32 of the Building Safety Act 2022, which is to come into force on 1st October 2023, provides for the regulator to be the building control authority in relation to any higher-risk building in England and any proposed higher-risk building. The requirements in the Building Regulations 2010 continue to apply to higher-risk buildings. Amendments (to be made elsewhere) to those Regulations disapply most of the procedural requirements in those Regulations, consequently procedures in this instrument apply instead. Part 2 of these Regulations sets out the procedures for applying for building control approval in relation to higher-risk buildings. Applications must be submitted to the regulator giving the information required and accompanied by the plans and documents required. Building control approval may, with the applicant’s consent, be subject to a requirement, for example, to not progress beyond a specified point without agreement of the regulator or that more detailed plans or documents could be approved by the regulator at a later date. Part 3 of these Regulations sets out the change control process where any document relating to the work which was approved by the regulator at the application stage (or subsequently under a requirement or a change control) is to be changed. And provision is also made in this Part for change to the client, principal contractor or principal designer, insolvency etc of a client and variation of a requirement imposed on a building control approval. Part 4 of these Regulations sets out provisions in relation the golden thread information, mandatory occurrence reporting and the handover of information on completion of the work. Part 5 of these Regulations sets out the procedures for applying for a completion certificate in relation to higher-risk buildings. Applications must be submitted to the regulator giving the information required and accompanied by the plans and documents required. Provision is also made for partial completion certificates where it is proposed a building (or part of a building) is occupied before all of the higher-risk building work is completed. Part 6 of these Regulations sets out provision relating to inspections, testing and sampling, regularisation of unauthorised work, review by the regulator of its decisions, and appeals in relation to reviewed decisions and the procedure under section 30A of the Building Act 1984 (which provides that a request can be made to the Secretary of State for determination of an application where the regulator has not made a decision within the time limit prescribed). Part 7 of these Regulations defines exempt work, gives the regulator the power by direction to require an application to be sent to it via a specified method, and also sets out those provisions in relation to which a stop notice under section 35C of that Act may be given. Part 7 also includes consequential amendments to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/1541); the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/948); and the Building Safety (Responsible Actors Scheme and Prohibitions) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/753). Schedule 3 to these Regulations sets out transitional, supplementary and saving provisions in relation to projects for higher-risk building work for which plans were deposited or initial notices given before 1st October 2023. A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs to business is published with an Explanatory Memorandum alongside the instrument on 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 →

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 0.55.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.55 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