UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Road Traffic (Fixed Penalty) Order

article 2(5) of The Road Traffic (Fixed Penalty) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2011

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

5 For the Schedule substitute— SCHEDULE1 Fixed Penalties Article

2 Offence Fixed Penalty In this Schedule

a “fixed penalty offence” is an offence specified in the Road Traffic (Fixed Penalty) (Offences) Order (Northern Ireland) 1997. 1.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 2(5)?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Road Traffic (Fixed Penalty) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2011, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
£200
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
28 July 2011
In force from
12 September 2011
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.

This Order prescribes the amount of fixed penalties for certain fixed penalty offences by amending the Road Traffic (Fixed Penalty) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007 (“the Principal Order”). It amends the Principal Order to provide for new fixed penalty offences which have been specified as such by Article 2 of the Road Traffic (Fixed Penalty) (Offences) (Amendment) (Order) (Northern Ireland) 2011. The new fixed penalties relate to record keeping (including obstructing an officer or failing to comply with requirements), failure to comply with a prohibition issued in respect of a bus, coach or goods vehicle except under a public service vehicle or Roads Service licence, and failing to hold the required Community licence or authorisation. The Order also provides that, in respect of certain offences, the applicable amount of the fixed penalty is to be determined according to the nature of the contravention or failure constituting the offence and, in specified cases, its seriousness. The offences in question relate to drivers’ hours (and related recording equipment) for goods and public passenger vehicles, certain roadworthiness defects, and overloading. The applicable amount, determined in relation to the nature of the offence and, in specified cases, its seriousness, is set out in column (2) of each of the tables in the new Schedule 2 (Article 2(4) and (5)). An Explanatory Memorandum and a Regulatory Impact Assessment has been produced and is available from Road Safety Division, Department of the Environment, Clarence Court, 10-18 Adelaide Street, Belfast BT2 8GB or viewed online at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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 0.62.

Basis
the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.62 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