It shall be an offence for a person to use a specified motor vehicle registered in Great Britain, or any…

regulation 5(1) of The Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (No. 2) Regulations 1973

Status not determined
Strict liability
Summary only
Road traffic and vehicles

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 It shall be an offence for
a person to use
a specified motor vehicle registered in Great Britain, or any trailer kept by
a person permanently resident in Great Britain, whether or not coupled, in the territory other than Great Britain and Gibraltar of any of the member states of the Communities, unless
a policy of insurance is in force in relation to the person using that vehicle which insures him in respect of any liability which may be incurred by him in respect of the use of the vehicle in such territory according to the law on compulsory insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of vehicles of the state where the liability may be incurred.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 5(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.

Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (No. 2) Regulations 1973.

Penalty

Mode of trial: Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine: £50
Maximum prison (summary): 3 months

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.

Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017
The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.
General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019
The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.
Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales
How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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: 18 December 1973
In force from: 1 January 1974
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

These Regulations revoke the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1973 and re-enact them with the same operative date (1st January 1974) but without the power of arrest conferred by Regulation 7(1). The Regulations implement certain of the obligations arising out of the European Communities Council Directive of 24th April 1972 (Official Journal No. L. 103/1, 2nd May 1972) relating to insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles and trailers. Regulation 3 amends section 145 of the Road Traffic Act 1972, with the result that the compulsory motor vehicle insurance cover required under Part VI of that Act is extended to include liabilities arising out of the use of a motor vehicle or trailer which are compulsorily insurable in the territories of the member states of the Communities. Regulation 4 makes a consequential amendment to the provision relating to securities. Regulation 5 makes it an offence to use vehicles exempted from the compulsory insurance requirements in Great Britain in the territory (other than Great Britain and Gibraltar) of a member state of the Communities without insurance cover valid for those states. Regulations 6 and 7 provide for the checking of the insurance cover of vehicles coming from non-member states, from the non-European territory of member states or from Gibraltar and enable the use of such vehicles, if uninsured, to be prohibited in Great Britain. Regulation 8 removes, in respect of insurance policies issued elsewhere than in the United Kingdom for vehicles kept in member states other than the United Kingdom and Gibraltar, the requirements that they should be issued by an insurer carrying on motor insurance business in Great Britain and that there should be issued a certificate in a prescribed form. Regulation 9 extends the duty in section 151(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1972 to give information as to insurance or security where a claim is made to include the case where, although there is cover for the purposes of Part VI of that Act, no certificate has been delivered; and applies the offence in section 169 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 (forgery of documents etc.) to documents produced as evidence of insurance under Regulation 6.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

Any person who— a uses a vehicle or causes or permits a vehicle to be used in contravention of a prohibition…regulation 6(4)

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 0.90.

Basis: the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence: 0.90 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

This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
The Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (No. 2) Regulations 1973 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
Road traffic and vehiclesOther offences on the same subject
Offences created in 1973