UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 23(5) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021 (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

5 An operator (within the meaning of regulation 16) who contravenes regulation 17(3) or 18(3) commits 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an operator
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 an operator 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 23(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. On these words an offence is committed where an operator contravenes regulation 17(3) or 18(3).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. 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
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
15 April 2021
In force from
16 April 2021
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 consolidate The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 and subsequent amendments, and introduce new provisions for travellers to Northern Ireland with regards to mandatory post-arrival testing, and the requirement to enter managed isolation for arrivals from red list countries. The full requirements of these Regulations are set out below. Part 1, and Schedules 1 to 2, set out the interpretation provisions, and red list and green list countries. A country which is neither a red list nor green list country is an amber list country. Red list arrivals are travellers who arrive in Northern Ireland from a red list country, and so on. Part 2 of these Regulations impose requirements on individuals arriving in Northern Ireland and who have been in a country outside the common travel area (that is, the open borders area comprising the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands) in order to prevent the spread of infection or contamination from coronavirus or coronavirus disease. Regulation 4 and 5, along with Schedule 3 require those people to provide passenger information including contact details and details of their intended onward travel. Regulations 6 and 7, along with Schedule 5, require persons travelling to Northern Ireland from outside the common travel area to possess a notification of a negative coronavirus test upon arrival in Northern Ireland. Regulations 8 and 9, along with Schedule 6, impose requirements on travellers from outside the common travel area to obtain a testing package comprising a booking for two tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. The first test is to be taken within two days of a traveller’s arrival in Northern Ireland and it is to be capable of permitting genomic sequencing of any sample. The second test is to be taken after seven days of the traveller’s arrival. Where the traveller arrives from a green listed country, only a day 2 test is required. Regulations 10 to 13 require travellers from amber list countries to self-isolate (for example at their home) for 10 days following their arrival in the common travel area. Regulations 14 and 15, and Schedule 7, require travellers from red list countries to enter into manged isolation for 10 days following their arrival. Managed isolation will be at a place designated by the Department of Health. Travellers must be in possession of a managed isolation package before they arrive in Northern Ireland, which includes booking for the accommodation, transport to that accommodation and tests for coronavirus on day 2 and day 8 after arrival in Northern Ireland. Schedule 7 sets out some minor modifications to this obligation. Schedule 4 sets out the persons who are exempt from the requirements in Part 2 of the Regulations. Part 3 of the Regulations prohibits aircraft and vessels from arriving into Northern Ireland from certain red list countries. Part 4 addresses enforcement of the requirements in Parts 2-3, setting out the offences for breaching the requirements, and the levels of fixed penalty notices that can be issued by authorised persons. Part 5 addresses information sharing requirements to ensure the effective operation of the Regulations and the requirements they impose. Parts 6 and 7 revoke the previous Regulations and provide that these Regulations will automatically expire in March 2022. The Regulations must also be regularly reviewed to ensure they are still needed. An Equality Impact Assessment screening exercise has been carried out for these regulations, which determined that a full Equality Impact Assessment was not required. A separate Human Rights Impact Assessment is in progress.

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 “commits 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