UK Offence Report

Penalties

regulation 8(1) of The Wireless Telegraphy (Visiting Ships and Aircraft) Regulations 1998

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 Any person who contravenes any provision of these Regulations shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction for each such offence to

a fine not exceeding level

5 on the standard scale, and upon such conviction the court may order that any apparatus for wireless telegraphy in respect of which the offence was committed shall be forfeited.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 8(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes any provision of these Regulations.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Wireless Telegraphy (Visiting Ships and Aircraft) Regulations 1998, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Not determined
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

the level is stated but no money value is given: this instrument extends outside the United Kingdom, where the standard scale set by s.122(1) of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not run.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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
30 November 1998
In force from
24 December 1998
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 revoke and replace the Wireless Telegraphy (Colonial Ships and Aircraft) Regulations 1954 (S.I. 1954/539) and the Wireless Telegraphy (Foreign Ships and Aircraft) Regulations 1954 (S.I. 1954/540). Section 6 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 (c. 54), as amended by section 9 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967 (c. 72), empowers the Secretary of State to make regulations for regulating the use, within the limits of the United Kingdom and her territorial waters, of wireless telegraphy apparatus on board ships and aircraft which, not being registered in the United Kingdom, are registered in a country other than the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands. Section 6, as amended, has been extended by various Orders in Council to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. These Regulations contain provisions for regulating the use of wireless telegraphy apparatus on board any such ship or aircraft (defined in regulation 3(1) as a “visiting ship” or “visiting aircraft”) within the said limits with respect to interference (regulation 4) and communication with land stations (regulation 5). The Regulations also provide for inspection and restrictions on use of such apparatus (regulation 7) and penalties for offences against their provisions (regulation 8). A full regulatory impact assessment report of the effect that these Regulations would have on the costs of business is available to the public from the Radiocommunications Agency Library at New King’s Beam House, 22 Upper Ground, London SE1 9SA (Tel: 0171-211 0211).

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”; the provision states liability on summary conviction
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