UK Offence Report

24 A registered person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes or otherwise fails to comply with the…

regulation 24 of The Child Minding and Day Care (Wales) Regulations 2002

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

24 A registered person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes or otherwise fails to comply with the requirements of regulations 3 to 21 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 registered person
Conduct
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 registered 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.

“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

24 A registered person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes or otherwise fails to comply with the requirements of regulations 3 to 21 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

What would breach regulation 24?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a registered person contravenes or otherwise fails to comply with the requirements of regulations 3 to 21.
  2. Being served with a notice under the Child Minding and Day Care (Wales) Regulations 2002 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2002-04-01); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
21 March 2002
In force from
1 April 2002
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 are made under Part XA of the Children Act 1989 (“the 1989 Act”) and apply to persons who act as child minders or provide day care on premises situated in Wales. Part XA provides for the registration and inspection of child minders and day care providers in Wales by the National Assembly for Wales. It also contains powers enabling the National Assembly to make regulations governing the activities of such persons. The regulations come into force on 1st April 2002. Regulation 3 provides for a statement of purpose to be compiled by registered persons consisting of the aims and objectives and other relevant matters about the service to be provided for children under the care of the registered person. Part II (regulations 4 to 6) makes provision about the suitability of persons acting as child minders and day care providers and requires information to be available in relation to the matters specified in Schedule 2. Where a day care provider is an organisation it must nominate a responsible individual in respect of whom the information must be available. Regulation 5 imposes general requirements about the provision of care by registered persons and as to training. Regulation 6 requires offences and being charged for certain offences to be notified to the National Assembly. Part III makes provision about the welfare and development of relevant children under the care of registered persons and in particular about the promotion of the welfare of such children, the provision of food and the provision and implementation of child protection and behaviour management policies. Regulation 10 contains provisions prohibiting corporal punishment and other measures against such children. Regulations 11 to 13 make provision about the promotion of the health of relevant children, as to their safety and concerning the storage and administration of medicines. Regulation 14 requires a complaints procedure to be prepared and followed by registered persons. Part IV makes provision about the numbers, qualifications, experience and suitability of those working for registered persons including provision about the information which is required in relation to workers before they may work for child minders or day care providers. Part V provides for the keeping of records and the provision of information to parents of relevant children under the care of child minders or day care providers and to the National Assembly. Part VI makes provision about the fitness of premises on which care is provided, equipment and facilities provided at the premises and about fire precautions. Part VII deals with miscellaneous matters. In particular regulation 23 requires registered persons to have regard to national minimum standards for the different settings described in Schedule 1 and provides that any allegation that a registered person has failed to have regard to the relevant standards is to be taken into account by the National Assembly in the exercise of its functions under Part XA of the 1989 Act and in proceedings under that Part of the Act. Regulation 24 provides for offences for contravention of or non-compliance with certain regulations.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
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