UK Offence Report

Operating licences

regulation 8 of The Licensing of Air Carriers 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

8 An undertaking which, for the purpose of— a obtaining for itself or another undertaking an operating licence under the Council Regulation, or b seeking to demonstrate that the requirements of paragraphs 2 to 4 of article 4 of the Council Regulation are met in connection with securing the continuation of a right to operate under article 16 of that Regulation, knowingly or recklessly furnishes the CAA or the Secretary of State with any information which is false in a material particular shall be guilty of 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
a person
Conduct
making a false or misleading statement
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, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly).

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, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly.

What would breach regulation 8?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Licensing of Air Carriers Regulations 1992.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
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
1 December 1992
In force from
1 January 1993
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 make provision for implementing the Community obligations of the United Kingdom provided for in Council Regulation 2407/92 on licensing of air carriers and matters arising out of or related thereto. Subject to the terms of these Regulations and save for those instances where the Secretary of State is specified as the competent authority for the purposes of the Council Regulation the Civil Aviation Authority (the CAA) is given the task of performing the various functions relating to the grant and maintenance of air carrier operating licences that are required to be performed by the Council Regulation (regulation 3). Those terms require the CAA, in the case of small air carriers, to afford those carriers the option of providing the financial information relevant to article 5.5 of the Council Regulation rather than information as to net capital worth; disapply paragraphs 1 to 4 and 6 of article 5 of the Council Regulation in the case of small air carriers and require UK licensed air carriers to use aircraft registered according to an option determined by the Secretary of State save for the exceptions provided for in the Council Regulation (regulations 16 to 18). Provision is made for appeals to the Secretary of State consequent upon a refusal, suspension or withdrawal of an operating licence (regulation 19 and Schedule 1). The CAA is required to give the Secretary of State notice of cases where the CAA believes an air carrier seeking or holding an operating licence is not majority owned or effectively controlled by EC member States or their nationals and the CAA is obliged to act according to the determination of the Secretary of State (regulation 4). The CAA is empowered to prevent aircraft flying where it believes the operator does not possess the necessary operating licence (regulation 5). A number of offences are created namely, failing to comply with a CAA direction not to fly (regulation 5), operating without the required operating licence (regulation 6) failure to obtain prior approval for making use of or providing aircraft to another undertaking or to comply with the terms of any such approval (regulation 9) and failing to give, or giving false, information (regulations 8 and 10). Carriers holding a valid operating licence from the CAA are required to ensure when taking passengers who have arranged their travel through a person who is required to possess an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL) that such a licence is held, to extend their potential liability under article 17 of the Warsaw Convention 1929 as amended atThe Hague in 1955 to 100,000 Special Drawing Rights and to ensure that passengers onflights arranged for their attendance at association football matches all carry tickets forthe match. Failure to so ensure is created a criminal offence (regulation 11). The CAA is enabled to apply moral fitness criteria to the grant and maintenance of operating licences. Provision is made applying sections 64 to 69 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 with modifications so as to create, in place of the present air transport licence regime created for flights by those sections, a new regime for route licences. An air carrier requiring an operating licence under Council Regulation 2407/92 will require a route licence in order to undertake carriage for reward on a route for which traffic rights are not available under Council Regulation 2408/92 on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes (regulations 20 and 21). Air transport licences which remain valid by virtue of article 16 of Council Regulation 2407/92 are converted, in relation to certain routes, into route licences for those routes on the day the carrier concerned is granted its operating licence (regulation 22). Finally a number of consequential amendments are made to the Airports Act 1986, the Civil Aviation Act 1982, the Air Navigation Order 1989 and the Civil Aviation Authority Regulations 1991 (regulation 23 and Schedule 2).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

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