UK Offence Report

Personal protection orders and exclusion orders

article 14(1) of The Family Law (Northern Ireland) Order 1993

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

1 For Article 19 of the Domestic Proceedings (Northern Ireland) Order 1980 there shall be substituted— Breach of personal protection order or exclusion order 19 1 Any person who contravenes— a a personal protection order by reason of his molesting the person who applied for the order or a child of the family named in the order; or b an exclusion order by reason of his entry or attempted entry into the matrimonial home or other premises specified in the order, his damaging the matrimonial home or those premises, his interfering with any goods or services in connection with that home or those premises or his being in any area specified in the order as an area from which he is excluded, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to both.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach article 14(1)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Family Law (Northern Ireland) Order 1993, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
23 June 1993
In force from
Not determined
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order relates to family law in Northern Ireland. Article 3 abolishes the requirement for certain press notices in respect of marriages in register offices. Article 4 relaxes the restrictions on marriages within prohibited degrees of relationships, mainly between “in-laws”, if certain requirements are satisfied, and Article 5 enables the parties to an intended marriage within certain degrees of affinity to seek a declaration to the effect that the marriage would not be void by reason of the prohibited degrees. Articles 6 to 11 make provision as to the methods of payment, and the variation of the methods of payment, under maintenance orders, including maintenance orders registered in, or confirmed by, courts of summary jurisdiction or registered in the High Court. Article 12 establishes a new rules committee in relation to family proceedings in the High Court and county courts. Articles 13 and 14(2) transfer functions under certain provisions from the Secretary of State to the Lord Chancellor and from justices of the peace to resident magistrates. Article 14(1) makes breach of a personal protection order or an exclusion order a criminal offence. Article 15 disapplies the requirement for the petitioner’s oral testimony in divorce cases where the petition alleges two years' separation and the respondent consents to a decree being granted or where the petition alleges five years' separation.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”; the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source