UK Offence Report

Requirement for a person to give his name and address

regulation 12(2) of The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 1994

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

2 Any person who fails to give his name and address in accordance with paragraph (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

2 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 12(2)?

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 a person fails to give his name and address in accordance with paragraph (1).
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 1994, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. 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
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
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
7 March 1994
In force from
1 April 1994
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 the charging of penalty fares for failure to produce, when required to do so, a ticket or other authority authorising a person to travel by train or to be present in a compulsory ticket area at a station. They also empower the Rail Regulator to make rules governing the charging and imposition of penalty fares. Regulation 3 imposes the requirement on any person travelling by train or being present in or leaving a compulsory ticket area to produce a ticket or other authority to travel or be in a compulsory ticket area, when required to do so by an authorised collector. Regulation 4 provides that, if any person fails to comply with the requirement imposed by regulation 3, then that person shall be liable to a penalty fare. Regulation 5 makes provision for the amount of the penalty fare to be charged. Regulations 6 and 7 contain provisions setting out the circumstances in which a penalty fare is not to be charged. Regulation 8 provides that a penalty fare may be recovered as a civil debt. Regulation 9 provides that, if a relevant statement is provided to the person charging the penalty fare, then it shall be for that person to show that any of the facts contained in the statement are not true. Regulation 9 also contains provisions about what a relevant statement should contain and the time within which it should be provided. Regulation 10 contains provision preventing a person from being liable to a penalty fare in the event that he is prosecuted for any of the offences specified in that regulation. Regulation 11 empowers the Rail Regulator to make rules relating to penalty fares. Regulation 12 requires a person to give his name and address when required to do so by an authorised collector and creates the offence of failing to do so.

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 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