UK Offence Report

1 Any member who takes part in any proceedings of the Parliament without having complied with, or in…

article 8(1) of The Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Members' Interests) Order 1999

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 member who takes part in any proceedings of the Parliament without having complied with, or in contravention of, article 4(2)(a), 4(6), 5 or 6 is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 article 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 takes part in any proceedings of the Parliament without having complied with, or in contravention of, article 4(2)(a), 4(6), 5 or 6.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Members' Interests) Order 1999, 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
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (1999-06-04); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

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
12 May 1999
In force from
4 June 1999
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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes transitory and transitional provisions by virtue of section 129(1) of the Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) (“the Act”) regarding the registration of interests of members of the Scottish Parliament and the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland if they are not members of the Parliament. Article 3 establishes a Register of Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament. It provides for various details to be entered in the Register by the Clerk of the Parliament and for the Register to be kept and maintained by the Clerk. Article 4 requires members to lodge a written statement setting out details of any registrable interest contained in the Schedule to the Order. Members may also lodge a statement if they cease to have a registrable interest. Article 5 requires members who have a registrable interest in proceedings of the Parliament, before participating in those proceedings, to make an oral declaration to that effect. Article 6 restricts a member’s participation in proceedings of the Parliament where he receives or expects to receive a payment from any person. Article 7 allows the Parliament to prevent or restrict a member who fails to comply with or contravenes certain provisions of this Order from participating in proceedings of the Parliament and in certain circumstances, to exclude such a member from proceedings of the Parliament. Article 8 makes it an offence to fail to comply with or to contravene certain provisions of this Order. Article 9 provides that any person may inform the Presiding Officer if he considers that a member has failed to comply with or has contravened certain provisions of this Order. Article 10 provides that this Order will cease to have effect on the date appointed by or under an Act of the Scottish Parliament.

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