UK Offence Report

Modification of the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977

regulation 7(6) of The Marriage Between Civil Partners (Procedure for Change and Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2014

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

6 In section 24 (offences)—

a for subsection (1) there was substituted—

1 Any person who—

a falsifies or forges the application form issued or made, or purporting to be issued or made in relation to the procedure to change

a civil partnership into

a marriage under section

10 regulations;

b knowingly uses, or gives or sends to any person as genuine, any false or forged application form issued or made, or purporting to be issued or made under section

10 regulations;

c as the district registrar signs the application form, without both parties to the marriage being present, is guilty of an offence and is liable—

i on conviction on indictment, to

a fine or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

2 years or to both;

ii on summary conviction, to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

3 months or to both. ; and

b subsection (2) is omitted.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (knowingly).

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

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly.

What would breach regulation 7(6)?

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 Between Civil Partners (Procedure for Change and Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2014.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£10,000
Maximum prison (summary)
3 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
15 December 2014
In force from
16 December 2014
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 establish the procedure for changing an existing qualifying civil partnership into a marriage under section 10 of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014. A qualifying civil partnership is any existing civil partnership which was registered in Scotland and has not been dissolved, annulled or ended by death. A civil partnership which was registered outside the United Kingdom under an Order in Council made under Chapter 1 of Part 5 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, where the parties to the civil partnership elected Scotland as the relevant part of the United Kingdom under the Order and details of the civil partnership were sent to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for Scotland, is treated as having been registered in Scotland. The Regulations also make appropriate modifications to the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977 and the Gender Recognition Act 2004 in consequence of the procedure.

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