105.Section 37 defines the terms “regulator” and “designated regulator”, while section 38 defines “relevant offence”. The Act confers powers to enable regulators to have access to the new sanctions for certain relevant offences.
106.A “regulator” is a body that is listed at Schedule 5 to the Act or is a body who exercises an enforcement function in relation to an offence under enactments listed at Schedule 6. It does not include police or prosecution authorities. Regulators will be allowed to use the new sanctions contained in Part 3 once the Minister with responsibility for that particular policy area has passed secondary legislation to grant them the relevant powers. The Minister will decide which relevant offences should be covered.
107.The first group of regulators are those listed at Schedule 5 (“designated regulators”). For these regulators, “relevant offence” (as defined in section 38(2)) means an offence in an Act in relation to which the regulator has an enforcement function (defined in section 71), such as investigating an incident of regulatory non-compliance.
108.The second group of regulators are those bodies with an enforcement function in relation to an offence contained in any enactment listed at Schedule 6. This group will largely consist of local authorities and Ministers. For these regulators, “relevant offence” means an offence which is contained in the enactments listed at Schedule 6 in relation to which the regulator has an enforcement function. The enactments at Schedule 6 cover regulatory areas such as agriculture, animals, the environment, food safety, consumer protection, transport and health and safety.
109.Orders under Part 3 only confer powers in relation to offences in existing Acts. Those are offences in existing Acts enforced by those regulators listed in Schedule 5; and offences in the enactments listed in Schedule 6. It is intended that in future Acts which create regulatory offences will themselves create whatever civil sanctions are necessary.
110.Offences in subordinate legislation are dealt with in section 62 and Schedule 7 (see later).