UK Offence Report

Offences – responsible individuals

regulation 56(1) of The Regulated Advocacy Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2019

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 It is an offence for the responsible individual to fail to comply with

a requirement of any of the provisions specified in paragraph (2).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 56(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. On these words it is an offence to fail to comply with a requirement of any of the provisions specified in paragraph (2).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Regulated Advocacy Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2019 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
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
31 January 2019
In force from
29 April 2019
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 the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 and set out the regulatory requirements and related provision for providers of regulated advocacy services and for those persons who are designated as the “responsible individuals” for such services. The Regulations are divided into 18 Parts dealing with different aspects of the requirements. Regulation 2 in Part 1 defines the sorts of advocacy service which fall to be regulated under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016. Part 2 sets out the general requirements on service providers. This includes requirements in relation to the statement of purpose, the arrangements for monitoring and improvement, the support to be provided to the responsible individual, the steps to be taken to ensure financial sustainability and the policies and procedures which must be in place. Regulation 11 in Part 3 requires providers to determine that their service is suitable to meet the individual’s needs before taking on an individual. Part 4 requires service providers to prepare a plan and keep it under review for the period that they are providing a service to an individual. Part 5 requires providers to give each person who uses the service a written guide and to local authorities who commission services. Part 6 sets requirements on services providers about the standard of the services which they must provide. Part 7 requires service providers to ensure the individuals are safe and protected from abuse, neglect and improper treatment. Part 8 requires service providers to employ staff who are fit and prescribes what fitness means for these purposes. Part 9 requires providers to have premises which are fit for the purpose and that facilities and equipment used meet the same standard. Part 10 sets a number of other requirements that service providers maintain the prescribed records, notify the regulator of prescribed events, manage conflicts of interest, have complaints procedures and a whistleblowing policy. Parts 11 to 15 set the requirements which apply to responsible individuals. These include the duty to appoint a manager for the service, to supervise the management of the service, to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and to monitor, review and improve the quality of the service. Part 16 sets out those regulations whose breach amounts to an offence and which therefore create criminal liability for service providers and for responsible individuals. Part 17 sets out specific requirements which apply when the service provider is insolvent or when a service provider who is an individual has died. In these circumstances, the regulations in this Part place specific notification duties on the appointed person (in the case of insolvency) or the personal representatives (in the case of the death of a service provider who is an individual). Regulation 58 enables the personal representatives to act in the capacity of the service provider and the Act is modified so that in these circumstances the personal representatives are not required to register and one of the personal representatives can be designated as the responsible individual in respect of a place where the service is provided. Part 18 (regulation 59) specifies the circumstances in which the Welsh Ministers (instead of a service provider) may designate an individual to be a responsible individual, despite the eligibility requirements of section 21(2) of the Act not being met in respect of the individual. This regulation is made under section 21(5) of the Act. The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from the Department of Health and Social Services, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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