UK Offence Report

Part 1 Provisions coming into force on 17 November 2025 Column 1 Column 2 (Provisions of the Act) (Subject…

Schedule of The Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 1 Amendment and Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2025

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

Part 1 Provisions coming into force on 17 November 2025 Column 1 Column 2 (Provisions of the Act) (Subject matter) Section 47 Application of this Part Section 48 Key definitions Section 49 Further definitions relating to candidates, parties and elections Section 50 Electronic material: conditions for application of section 52 Section 51 Purpose of the electronic material Section 52 Requirement to include information Section 53 Exceptions to requirement in section 52 Section 54 Offence of breaching section 52 Section 55 Individual culpability where organisation commits an offence Section 56 Enforcement by the Electoral Commission Section 57 Supply of information Section 59 Electoral Commission’s annual report Part 2 Provisions coming into force on 1 April 2026 Column 1 Column 2 (Provisions of the Act) (Subject matter) Section 69 Constitution of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland Section 70 Application of public bodies legislation to the Electoral Management Board for Scotland Section 71 Transitional provision: membership of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 Schedule?

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 Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 1 Amendment and Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2025.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
16 September 2025
In force from
30 September 2025
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 amend the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2025 so that provisions in Part 8 (information to be included with certain electronic material at Scottish elections) of the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025 (“the Act”) will not come into force on 1 October 2025. Instead those provisions, which are listed in Part 1 of the schedule, will come into force on 17 November 2025. These Regulations also bring into force sections 69 (Constitution of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland), 70 (application of public bodies legislation to the Electoral Management Board for Scotland) and 71 (transitional provision: membership of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland) of the Act on 1 April 2026. The Bill for the Act received Royal Assent on 29 January 2025. Sections 72, 73 and 74 of the Act were brought into force on 30 January 2025 by section 73(1) of the Act.

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 0.92.

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