1 Any person who— a being a person mentioned in Article 9(a), solemnises a marriage without a marriage…

article 38(1) of The Marriage (Northern Ireland) Order 2003

• Status not determined
• Strict liability
• Summary only
• Miscellaneous

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 Any person who— a being a person mentioned in Article 9(a), solemnises a marriage without a marriage schedule in respect of the marriage issued in accordance with this Order, being available to him at the time of the marriage ceremony; b not being a person mentioned in Article 9(a) or (b), conducts a marriage ceremony in such a way as to lead the parties to the marriage to believe that he is solemnising a valid marriage; or c being a person mentioned in Article 9(a) or (b), solemnises a marriage without both parties to the marriage being present, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

breaching the provision

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 38(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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Marriage (Northern Ireland) Order 2003.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court

Maximum fine

£5,000

Standard scale

Level 5

Maximum prison (summary)

6 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.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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

27 February 2003

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 makes provision in connection with the formalities for marriage and the solemnisation and registration of marriages.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

• Marriage (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 Lords · 12 February 2003
• Civil Partnership Bill Hl Lords · 13 May 2004

  The noble Baroness said: Amendments Nos. 61A and 61 B make technical adjustments to Clause 131. The first amendment places on the face of the Bill a provision that witnesses to a civil partnership registration must be 16 or over. This corresponds to a provision in the Marriage (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 and ensures consistency of approach to the age at which a person may act as witness.

• Immigration Bill (Fifteenth sitting) Commons · 17 November 2015 · Keir Starmer

  The purpose of a probing amendment is to identify a particular concern and seek assurance on it. The Minister gave that assurance and says all are working on a remedy. In those circumstances, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion. Clause, by leave, withdrawn. New Schedule 1 Private hire vehicles etc Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869 (c. 115) 1 The Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869 is amended as follows.…

• Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Bill Lords · 30 October 2018 · Lord Morrow (DUP)

  My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, on his excellent speech. I think he has captured it all here this evening, and I put on the record my appreciation of what he said. I shall speak to Amendments 16, 10 and 11. I begin by responding to the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Adonis. I shall first touch briefly on the effect of each before reflecting on their immediate implication and then…

Other offences in the same instrument

• Any person who— a being authorised under Article 14(1), solemnises a marriage otherwise than in accordance…article 38(2)

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”

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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• The Marriage (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• MiscellaneousOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 2003