UK Offence Report

Summoning a witness

regulation 48(7) of The Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales Regulations 2012

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

7 A witness summons must contain— a in relation to an appeal, a statement that under section 336 of the 1996 Act, any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with any requirement to attend to give evidence and, if the summons so requires, to produce documents is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale; b in relation to a claim, a statement that, under paragraph 6(8) of Schedule 17 to the 2010 Act, any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with any requirement to attend to give evidence and, if the summons so requires, to produce documents is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale; and c a statement of the effect of paragraph (8) .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

ment that under section 336 of the 1996 Act, any person who without reasonable excuse fails to comply with any requirement to attend to give evidence and, if the summons so requires, to produce documents is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale; b in relation to a claim, a statement that, under para

What would breach regulation 48(7)?

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. Being served with a notice under the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales Regulations 2012 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  2. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  3. 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
£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
8 February 2012
In force from
6 March 2012
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 set out the procedure to be followed in proceedings before the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales. These Regulations make provision relating to the exercise of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction under Part 4 of the Education Act 1996 which concerns special educational needs appeals and Chapter 1 of Part 6 of the Equality Act 2010 which concerns claims of disability discrimination in respect of school pupils. Part A contains general provisions which include revocations, savings and transitional provisions. It also makes provision in relation to the Tribunal’s constitution. Part B makes provision about commencing proceedings, case preparation, hearings, Tribunal decisions, and reviews and appeals against Tribunal decisions. It also makes provision about Tribunal orders, the time limits within which local authorities must comply with such orders and the time limits within which local authorities must take specified action following their concession of certain appeals to the Tribunal. Part C makes provision in relation to appellants or claimants who are children. It sets out the procedure to be followed and the provisions that must be met for a person to act as the child’s case friend. Part D contains miscellaneous provisions which apply to proceedings before the Tribunal.

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.

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction
Confidence
0.72 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