UK Offence Report

1 An operator who fails to comply with the requirement in— a regulation 6(1), or b regulation 7(1), commits…

regulation 8(1) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Pre-Departure Testing and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Regulations 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

1 An operator who fails to comply with the requirement in—

a regulation 6(1), or

b regulation 7(1), 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to comply with a notice or direction
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 8(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 an operator fails to comply with the requirement in— a regulation 6(1), or b regulation 7(1).
  2. Being served with a notice under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Pre-Departure Testing and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 and doing nothing by the date it specifies.
  3. Doing part of what the notice requires, where it required all of it.
  4. Disagreeing with the notice and ignoring it, rather than using whatever appeal the instrument provides.

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
14 January 2021
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.

Part 1 of these Regulations amends the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (“the 2020 Regulations”) to introduce a requirement for persons travelling to Scotland from outside the open borders area comprising the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland (the “common travel area” by virtue of section 1(3) of the Immigration Act 1971) to possess a notification of a negative coronavirus test upon arrival in Scotland. Part 2 of these Regulations introduces requirements for persons operating commercial transport services (“operators”) for passengers travelling to Scotland from outside the common travel area to ensure that passengers who arrive in Scotland on such services have completed a Passenger Locator Form (regulation 6(1)) and possess notification of a negative test result (regulation 7(1)). Breach of the requirements is an offence (regulation 8(1)). Upon completion of the Passenger Locator Form, passengers receive a unique passenger reference number from the Home Office. An operator who has recorded a unique passenger reference number in the format used by the Home Office will have a defence to the offence in regulation 8(1)(a) (regulation 8(3)). Regulation 9 makes provision for extra-territorial jurisdiction. Regulation 10 sets out when passenger information can be disclosed and used in Scotland. The necessity and proportionality of the requirements imposed by these Regulations will be reviewed at least once every 28 days under regulation 14 of the International Travel Regulations and regulation 11 of these Regulations, and these Regulations will expire on 8 June 2021. Due to the urgent nature of these Regulations and as the provisions made by these Regulations will have effect for a period of less than 12 months, a full Impact Assessment has not been prepared.

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