UK Offence Report

The European Protection Order (Scotland) Regulations 2015 (revoked)

Scottish Statutory Instrument 2015 No. 107 — creates 2 criminal offences.

2offences created
0recorded in force
0revoked
Made
10 March 2015
In force from
11 March 2015
Extent
Not stated
Subject
Courts, police, prisons and the administration of justice
Made under
European Communities Act 1972

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations implement, in part, Directive 2011/99/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Protection Order. They extend to Scotland only. Regulation 2 adds five new sections to the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (“the 1995 Act”) so as to allow Scottish courts to issue a European Protection Order (“EPO”) and to recognise and implement an EPO issued in another member state of the European Union. New section 254A to be added to the 1995 Act provides a number of definitions for the terms used in sections 254A to 254E. A “protected person” is an individual who is the object of the protection given by a protection measure and a “protection measure” involves the imposition of certain prohibitions or restrictions on the conduct of one individual in order to protect another individual. The issuing state is the member state of the European Union whose competent authority issues the EPO and the executing state is the member state of the European Union in which the protected person resides or stays or intends to reside or stay. New section 254B to be added to the 1995 Act allows the court to issue an EPO on the application of a protected person or their authorised representative. The court must be satisfied that a protection measure imposed in Scotland is in force and that the protected person either resides or stays, or has decided to reside or stay, in the executing state. Subsection (3) provides two matters which the court must take into account in deciding whether to issue an EPO. Subsection (4) obliges the court to inform the protected person if the application for an EPO is refused. Subsection (5) obliges the court, once it has issued an EPO, to transmit the EPO to the competent authority of the executing state. Subsection (6) obliges the court to modify or revoke the EPO and inform the executing state if the protection measure imposed in Scotland is modified or revoked. New sections 254C, 254D and 254E to be added to the 1995 Act cater for the situation where an EPO is received by a sheriff. New section 254C deals with the recognition of an incoming EPO. Subsection (2) obliges the sheriff to recognise the EPO unless one of the grounds for refusal specified in subsection (3) apply. Subsection (4) obliges the sheriff to request further information from the competent authority of the issuing state where the sheriff considers the EPO to be incomplete. Subsection (5) provides for the competent authority of the issuing state and the protected person to be informed of a decision to refuse to recognise the EPO. New section 254D deals with the implementation of an EPO once it has been recognised under section 254C. Subsection (1) provides that, where an EPO has been recognised by a sheriff, the sheriff must make a non-harassment order (NHO) in relation to the offender. Subsection (2) applies section 234A(4) to NHOs made under subsection (1) subject to the restrictions on the maximum penalties in paragraph 1(1)(d) of Schedule 2 to the European Communities Act 1972. Subsection (3) applies section 234A(4A) and (4B) to NHOs made under subsection (1). Subsection (4) places some restrictions on the requirements as to the offender’s behaviour which may be contained in the NHO. Subsection (5) specifies two matters which the sheriff must consider when considering which requirements to impose on the offender in the NHO. Subsections (6) and (7) place an obligation on the sheriff to provide certain information to the offender, the competent authority of the issuing state and the protected person where it makes an NHO under subsection (1). Subsection (8) places an obligation on a court which convicts the offender of a breach of an NHO made under subsection (1) to inform the competent authority of the issuing state. New section 254E to be added to the 1995 Act provides powers and duties for sheriffs to revoke or modify an NHO made under section 254D(1). Subsection (2) provides powers by which the NHO can be modified or revoked in response to a modification of the EPO to which the non-harassment order relates. Subsection (3) creates a process by which the offender can apply to a sheriff for a modification of the NHO. Subsection (4) obliges a sheriff to revoke the NHO where the sheriff is informed by the competent authority of the issuing state that the EPO to which the NHO relates has been revoked or withdrawn. Subsection (5) creates a process by which the offender can apply to a sheriff for a revocation of the NHO. Subsection (6) obliges the sheriff to inform the issuing state and, where possible, the protected person and the offender where the NHO is modified or revoked under section 254E.

Offences created by this instrument

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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