MLR1PP5050 - Penalties Guidance: Identifying registration breaches: Introduction
Registration breaches will be identified by both the Registration Team and Compliance Officers. Responsibility for deciding what penalty action is appropriate will depend on a combination of the specific regulations which has been breached and how the breach was identified. There are two specific types of registration breaches.
- Breaches of Regulation 27(4), failing to inform us within 30 days about changes to details which were required at registration
These breaches will normally be identified by either the Registration Team when updating the register or processing the Change of Details form (template businesses use when advising of changes) or by our Compliance Team during a Compliance Visit or an Intervention by our Central Intervention Team.
Because the Registration Team are responsible for updating the register and have direct access to DTR, they will retain responsibility for issuing warning letters and penalties for Regulation 27(4).
If during a visit or Intervention a Compliance Officer identifies changes to a business's registration details which have not been notified to us, a written report should be made by the Compliance Officer to the Registration Team accompanying any Change of Details forms completed by the business. The amount of detail required in the report will depend on the specific circumstances but this should include details of any evidence gathered by Compliance.
Regulation 27(4) breaches will in many cases be the result of error or neglect.
This means that for the first minor breach a penalty warning letter will usually be the most appropriate response unless there is evidence that it was either deliberate or failing to notify us of registration detail changes had a significant impact. For example, failure to notify us about a new Nominated Officer could be an attempt to avoid the fit and proper test.
If the changes are relatively minor and the failure had a minimal impact, a second warning letter should always be considered before issuing a penalty for this specific breach.
