MLR1PP11300 - Penalties guidance: the administrative process for issuing a penalty

The appropriate person responsible for issuing the penalty is referred to as the Decision Maker. This will be either:

  • an Officer in the Registration Team dealing with MLR registration
  • an Officer who has discovered the breach of the Regulations during a compliance visit or other Intervention.

It is the responsibility of the Decision Maker to prepare and sign a draft pre-penalty notice. When the Decision Maker has completed the draft pre-penalty notice, they must send it to their Countersigning officer (CSO) together with the table of failures and calculation statement, for authorisation.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000) They are responsible for considering if the most appropriate sanction has been applied, and that any penalty has been calculated correctly.(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

If the CSO does not authorise the pre-penalty letter the DM must take the alternative actions as advised by the CSO.

If the CSO does authorise the draft pre-penalty letter the DM must then issue the pre-penalty notice (plus table of failures and calculation statement) to the business, giving them 30 days to respond.

The Decision Maker (DM) is the first point of contact for businesses submitting any additional information in response to a pre-penalty letter.

If the business replies with additional information for the DM to consider, the DM must consider the new facts and decide whether the penalty still stands or needs reducing. When they have decided, they must send the new facts and the result of their decision to the CSO for them to authorise the revised penalty figure. If the CSO authorises the revised penalty, the DM can then complete the draft Penalty Notice.

If the business does not reply to the Pre-penalty letter, the DM can also go ahead and complete the draft Penalty Notice.

At this point the DM must also partially complete the internal input form (available on MICRA). This form records and evidences their decision making process. The draft penalty notice (plus table of failures and calculation statement) and the input form must both be sent to the CSO for them to sign, to confirm that they agree with the final penalty decision.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000) table of failures and calculation statement(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000) copy of the penalty notice and penalty statement,(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)