UK Offence Report

Offence of failure to comply with regulation 20

regulation 21(1) of The Registered Office Address (Rectification of Register) Regulations 2024

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 If a company fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with regulation 20 an offence is committed by— a the company, and b every officer of the company that is in default.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 company
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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 company 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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

1 If a company fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with regulation 20 an offence is committed by— a the company, and b every officer of the company that is in default.

What would breach regulation 21(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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Registered Office Address (Rectification of Register) Regulations 2024.

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
29 February 2024
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 provide the registrar of companies with power, on application and on the registrar’s own motion, to change a company’s registered office address to a “default address” if the registrar is satisfied that the address is not an “appropriate address” within the meaning of section 86 of the Companies Act 2006 (c. 46). Part 2 requires the registrar to nominate a default address for the purposes of these Regulations. Part 3 provides for applications to be made to the registrar to change a company’s registered office address and the notice to be given about the application. Part 4 provides for the registrar to change a company’s registered office address after having given prior notice to the company. Part 5 provides for the registrar to change a company’s registered office address without giving prior notice. Part 6 provides for the registrar to be able to change a registered office address from one default address to another default address. Part 7 provides for appeals against the registrar’s decisions under these Regulations. Part 8 provides for the effect of changing a company’s registered office address to a default address nominated by the registrar. Part 9 establishes a criminal offence for a company and any officer in default where the company does not change its registered office address to an appropriate address within a certain period. Part 9 also establishes a power for the registrar to initiate strike-off proceedings against the company in these circumstances, and makes provision about the restoration of a struck-off company. Part 10 revokes the Companies (Address of Registered Office) 2016 Regulations (S.I. 2016/423) and contains transitional provision. No impact assessment has been prepared in connection with these Regulations.

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 0.55.

Basis
c06_offence_committed
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