UK Offence Report

Offences in connection with candidature

regulation 5(1) of The European Parliamentary Elections Regulations 1999

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 A person who makes

a statement which he knows to be false in the declaration required by rule 8A(2) of the elections rules is guilty of an offence and is liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

3 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 5(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 makes a statement which he knows to be false in the declaration required by rule 8A(2) of the elections rules.
  2. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the European Parliamentary Elections Regulations 1999.
  3. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  4. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
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
Revoked
Revoked by
The European Parliamentary Elections Regulations 2004 (revoked)
Revoked on
23 March 2004
Made
23 April 1999
In force from
28 April 1999
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, which replace the Regulations revoked by Schedule 5, apply in Great Britain. They provide for the conduct of European Parliamentary elections under the regional list system of election. That system was introduced by amendments made to the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1978 by the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999. The basic structure of the Regulations is to apply with modifications the provisions of the Representation of the People Acts 1983 and 1985 which are listed in the left-hand column of Schedule 1 to these Regulations and the provisions of the Representation of the People Regulations 1986 and the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 1986 which are listed in the left-hand column of Schedule 2 to these Regulations. The provisions are subject to the general modifications made by regulation 3 and the specific modifications in the right-hand columns of Schedules 1 and 2 to these Regulations. The general modifications convert references to parliamentary elections into references to European Parliamentary elections (regulation 3(4)(b)), references to constituencies into references to electoral regions (regulation 3(4)(c)) and make other similar changes. Regulation 4 (together with regulation 3(4)(f)) confers functions in relation to the conduct of European Parliamentary elections on the local returning officer, as defined by regulation 2. That officer is the acting returning officer (or, in Scotland, the returning officer) for each parliamentary constituency wholly or partly contained in an electoral region. Regulation 6(1) confers powers on returning officers and local returning officers to delegate their functions. As applied by Schedule 1 to these Regulations, sections 67 to 70 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (which concern election agents) apply only in respect of individual candidates. Equivalent provision in respect of registered parties is made by regulations 11 to 14. Regulation 10 requires the appointment of a national election agent for a political party which is registered under the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 and stands for election in more than one electoral region at a general election of MEPs. As respects such a party, paragraphs (1) and (2) of regulation 15 make provision about the limits on election expenses which is equivalent to that in section 76(1) and (2) of the Representation of the People Act 1983. That provision, as applied, relates only to individual candidates. Paragraphs (1) and (2) of regulation 15 provide for the calculation of the limit of a registered party’s election expenditure by reference to the number of electoral regions in which it stands for election. Paragraphs (3) and (4) of regulation 15 provide for that limit where a registered party stands in one electoral region only. In the modifications to the 1983 Act, the sum mentioned in section 75(1)(i) is increased from £5 to £5,000 for each electoral region. This change is intended to bring the law into line with a decision of the European Court of Human Rights. As applied by Schedule 1 to these Regulations, the grounds on which an election petition may be brought are restricted (section 120, as applied). Section 169 has been modified so that a prosecution in respect of the illegal practice of exceeding the limit on election expenses may be brought on indictment (and, as such, subject to an unlimited fine). Regulations 16 and 17 provide for the filling of a vacancy from the list of candidates of a registered party returned at a general election of MEPs. Regulations 18 and 19 concern the holding of by-elections when vacancies cannot be filled from such lists. Schedule 3 amends the elections rules in Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 1983, as applied by Schedule 1 to these Regulations, where the poll at a European Parliamentary election is taken together with the poll at a parliamentary election or local government election under section 15 of the Representation of the People Act 1985. Schedule 4 concerns proxy papers.

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.

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