UK Offence Report

Offences and evidence

regulation 6(5) of The Statistics of Trade (Customs and Excise) Regulations 1992

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 If, following

a request made by the Commissioners in accordance with Article 9(2) of the Principal Regulation, any person is required to provide information and fails to do so in accordance with the conditions set out in the request for such information he shall be liable on summary conviction to

a penalty not exceeding level

4 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
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 6(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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Statistics of Trade (Customs and Excise) Regulations 1992, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
6 November 1992
In force from
1 December 1992
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.

From 1 January 1993 the collection of statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States will be governed by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3330/91 (OJ No. L316, 16.11.91, p. 1). From that date such statistics will be compiled by a new statistical collection system known as “Intrastat”. All VAT registered traders who are engaged in the trading of goods between Member States will be required to complete two boxes on their periodic VAT Return to provide the total value of goods dispatched to, and received from, other Member States. In addition, traders whose annual value of trade with other Member States exceeds a threshold of £135,000 for trade in goods dispatched, or for goods received, will be required to provide additional statistical information in a supplementary declaration. These Regulations place the responsibility for the care and management of the Intrastat system, as it applies to trade in goods with other Member States, with the Commissioners of Customs and Excise. They establish the Commissioners as the competent national department to whom supplementary declarations must be sent, and permit the Commissioners to take proceedings for non-compliance.

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 0.72.

Basis
the provision states liability on summary conviction; the provision states a penalty in older drafting
Confidence
0.72 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