UK Offence Report

Making of false statements etc.

regulation 27(1) of The Railways Regulations 1998

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 If any person, in giving any information or making any application under or for the purposes of any provision of these Regulations, makes any statement which he knows to be false in a material particular, he is guilty of an offence and shall be liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 27(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.

  1. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Railways Regulations 1998.
  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

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Railways Infrastructure (Access and Management) Regulations 2005
Revoked on
28 November 2005
Made
30 May 1998
In force from
27 June 1998
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement Council Directive 91/440/EEC of 29 July 1991 (OJ No. L237, 24.8.91, p. 25) on the development of the Community’s railways and Council Directives 95/18/EC and 95/19/EC of 19 June 1995 on the licensing of railway undertakings and on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the charging of infrastructure fees (OJ No. L143/75, 27.6.95, p. 70—75). They revoke the Railways Regulations 1992 and the Railways (Amendment) Regulations 1994 (which originally implemented Council Directive 91/440/EEC), and amend certain provisions of the Railways Act 1993 in relation to licensing of operators of railway assets and access rights. With the exception of paragraphs 6 to 8 of Schedule 2, the Regulations do not apply to Northern Ireland. The Regulations require any railway undertaking which is also an infrastructure manager to prepare and maintain accounts separately for the provision of transport services and infrastructure management (regulation 5), and require any infrastructure manager to ensure that the expenditure on railway infrastructure he incurs does not exceed the income he receives from infrastructure fees (regulation 6). They lay down requirements as to the fees to be charged by infrastructure managers for the use of railway undertakings who will in return provide the International Rail Regulator (appointed by the Secretary of State under regulation 9) with such information as he needs to determine whether fees are charged on a non-discriminatory basis (regulations 7 and 8 and Schedule 1). The Secretary of State is empowered to appoint one or more infrastructure managers to be allocation bodies responsible for handling applications for railway infrastructure capacity (regulation 10). Detailed procedures for the handling of applications for infrastructure capacity are specified in regulation 11 where the application is made to an allocation body in Great Britain, and in regulation 12 where the application is made elsewhere in the European Union. Railway undertakings aggrieved by a decision of an allocation body may appeal to the International Rail Regulator (regulation 14). The unlicensed provision of international services is made a criminal offence (regulation 15). The International Rail Regulator is appointed as the authority to issue international licences (regulation 16). Applicants for such licences must satisfy requirements as to good repute, professional competence, financial fitness and third party liabilities (regulation 16 and Schedule 3). Such licences are valid for as long as the licence holder complies with these Regulations and any licence conditions (regulation 18). The International Rail Regulator is empowered to monitor and suspend or revoke such licences in certain circumstances (regulation 19). The Railways Act 1993 is amended to take account of the new access and licensing regimes established by the Regulations (regulation 21). International groupings and railways undertakings are given statutory authority in respect of the provision of international services in exercise of rights granted under the regulations (regulation 22). Such groupings and undertakings are not to be common carriers in respect of the provision of such services (regulation 23). Certain enactments concerning railways are applied in respect of those services whether or not they would otherwise apply (regulation 24). Any person affected by a refusal or failure to comply with obligations arising under the regulations referred to in regulation 26, and who suffers loss or damage caused by the refusal or failure, may bring a civil action, and the International Rail Regulator may seek to enforce compliance by civil proceedings for an injunction or interdict (regulation 26). It is an offence knowingly to provide false information under or for the purpose of the Regulations (regulation 27). The disclosure of information obtained under the Regulations is restricted in the same way as information obtained under the Railways Act 1993 (regulation 29).

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 0.92.

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