Where a regulatory notice requires an act to be done by a specified date and the offence is failure to comply with the notice, the offence is committed once and for all when the specified date passes without compliance, following Sloggett v Adams. However, the form of the notice is critical: a notice with alternative requirements and ambiguities may not support a continuing offence charge even where the underlying regulatory purpose would favour such a construction. Regulatory authorities should draft notices clearly specifying continuing obligations if they wish to charge continuing offences. An invalid daily penalty provision in a regulation is severable from valid maximum penalty provisions under s 32(2) of the Interpretation Act 1987.
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