UK Offence Report

Prohibition of unlicensed provision of International services

regulation 30(1) of The Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 (revoked)

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 Where a person is a railway undertaking to which these Regulations apply, that person shall not provide international train services in Northern Ireland unless he is authorised to do so by a European licence which is appropriate for that train service, and any person who provides such services without such a licence shall be guilty of an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 30(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person provides such services without such a licence.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
1 December 2005
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement: a Council Directive 91/44/EC of the Council of 29 July 1991 on the development of the Community’s railways, as amended by Directive 2001/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2001 and Directive 2004/51/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 (“the amended 1991 Directive”); and b Council Directive 2001/14EC dated 26 February 2001 on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure as amended by Directive 2004/49/EC dated 29 April 2004 on safety on the Community’s railways both of the European Parliament and of the Council; and c Council Directive 95/18/EC dated 19 June 1995 on the licensing of railway undertakings, as amended by two further Directives (“the amended 1995 Directive”). These are Directive 2001/13/EC dated 26 February 2001, and Directive 2004/49/EC dated 29 April 2004, both being of the European Parliament and the Council. Part 1 contains preliminary provisions. Part 2 grants access and transit rights to international groupings and freight operators to the Northern Ireland rail network. It also grants all applicants the right of access to, and the supply of, the services listed in Schedule 1 to the Regulations. Part 3 imposes certain separation requirements between the bodies responsible for management of the railway infrastructure and railway undertakings. The infrastructure manager is placed under a requirement to produce a network statement containing the information set out in regulation 10. Part 4, together with Schedule 2, sets out the structure for the charging of fees for use of railway infrastructure, and the charging principles. Part 5, together with Schedule 3, sets out the framework and timetable for the process of allocating infrastructure capacity. the trading of capacity is prohibited, and allocation in the form of fixed train paths cannot be granted for longer than one timetable period. Regulations 22 to 24 set out the procedure that must be followed where an element of the railway infrastructure is congested, and regulation 25 provides a ëuse it or lose it’ provision in respect of allocated capacity. Part 6 allocates certain regulatory functions to the Department for Regional Development. Regulation 27 provides a right of appeal to the regulatory body for applicants aggrieved with various aspects of the allocation of capacity and the fees charged for the use of that capacity, and requires the regulatory body to make a decision on such appeals within two months. Regulation 28 requires the Department to monitor competition in the rail services market and to take appropriate action to deal with undesirable developments in the market, either arising out of its own investigations, or from complaints which have been submitted. Part 7 imposes requirements for licensing of railway undertakings; the provision of train services without having a European licence is made a criminal offence (regulation 30). The Department for Regional Development is appointed as the body to issue European licences (regulation 31). Applicants for such licences must satisfy requirements as to good repute, professional competence, financial fitness and insurance cover for liabilities (regulation 31 and Schedule 4). Such licences are valid as long as the licence holder complies with the requirements referred to in Schedule 4 and the requirements to submit the licence for review or approval (regulation 32). The licence is subject to monitoring and review by the Department, who may suspend or revoke such licences in certain circumstances (regulation 33). In addition to requiring a European licence, railway undertakings providing services in Northern Ireland will require a Statement of National Regulatory Provisions (a “SNRP”) (regulation 34). One or more conditions will be included in a SNRP by the Department, but these conditions must be compatible with Community law and must not be discriminatory (regulation 36). SNRPs may be modified by consent (regulation 38). Schedule 5 contains consequential amendments, and revocations to miscellaneous provisions.

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”
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