UK Offence Report

1 A person who has custody of a document which is required by regulation 5, 6 or 11 to be available for…

regulation 23(1) of The Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2000

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

1 A person who has custody of a document which is required by regulation 5, 6 or 11 to be available for inspection by members of the public commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse— a he intentionally obstructs any person exercising a right conferred under these Regulations to inspect, or to make a copy of the whole or part of the document; or b he refuses to supply a copy of the whole or part of the document in accordance with regulation 22(2).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally).

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: intentionally; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

inspection by members of the public commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse— a he intentionally obstructs any person exercising a right conferred under these Regulations to inspect, or to make a copy of the whole or part of the document; or b he refuses to supply a copy of the whole or part of the document in accordance with regulati

What would breach regulation 23(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 has custody of a document which is required by regulation 5, 6 or 11 to be available for inspection by members of the public.
  2. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2000.
  3. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  4. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£200
Standard scale
Level 1
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 Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012
Revoked on
10 September 2012
Made
13 December 2000
In force from
9 January 2001
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 apply to county councils and district councils in England, and to London borough councils, which are operating executive arrangements under Part II of the Local Government Act 2000. They make provision relating to public access to meetings of local authority executives and their committees. They also deal with access to information relating to decisions made by joint committees of local authorities where these are solely comprised of executive members and are discharging an executive function. As, under executive arrangements individual members and officers will be able to make executive decisions the Regulations also make provision in respect of access to documents where executive decisions are made by individual members or officers. The general principal of the Regulations is for the public to have access to meetings, documents and decisions where a local authority executive, a committee or an individual is to take a “key” decision. The factors which make a decision a key decision are set out in regulation 8. Part I of the regulations contains introductory material and definitions of terms used in the regulations. Part II contains general matters which relate to all executive decisions. In particular regulations 3 and 4 provide that executive decisions must be recorded. Where an executive decision is recorded a note must be made of the reasons for the decision, any alternatives considered when the decision was made and details of any conflict of interest. The provisions concerning recording apply to collectively made executive decisions, decisions made by individual members and key decisions made by officers. Part III provides for additional requirements in respect of key decisions. Under regulation 7, generally a meeting must be held in public where a key decision will be made or where there will be discussion of matters relating to a key decision to be made subsequently. Where a meeting is to be held in public there must be advance publication of agendas, reports and background papers for the meeting and this is dealt with in regulations 10, 11 and 12. Likewise, where key decisions are to be made by individuals the documents relating to these decisions must be available to the public (regulation 9). The public must also have a longer term advance notification of key matters that are to be dealt with under executive arrangements. Regulations 12, 13 and 14 provide that a forward plan detailing the key decisions to be made over the following four months must be published by the authority. The authority must also publish details about the forward plan, and its availability in a local newspaper annually. As the executive will not know about every key decision far enough in advance for it to be included on the forward plan there is provision in regulation 15 for a decision to be made without it being on the forward plan. The regulation sets out the procedure for the making of such a decision which includes informing the relevant overview and scrutiny committee chairman. Regulation 16 provides for cases of real urgency where a decision can be taken at short notice but only with the agreement of the chairman of the relevant overview and scrutiny committee or chairman of the authority. Members of local authorities are given additional rights in relation to access to information in part IV The common law position of “the need to know” is preserved. Regulation 18 sets out additional rights of members of overview and scrutiny committees in relation to decisions that they are scrutinising. In certain circumstances these members can have access to exempt or confidential information. Where a matter has not been treated as a key decision and an overview and scrutiny committee are of the opinion that it should have been treated as such, the overview and scrutiny committee can require the executive to make a report to the local authority on the matter (regulation 19). Regulation 20 requires that the executive reports to the local authority quarterly on all matters which have been treated as urgent under regulation 16. Part V contains general provisions relating to information. Regulation 21 sets out where matters should not be made public due to confidentiality or where making the matter public would involve disclosure of exempt information. In addition the regulation provides that the advice of a political adviser or assistant does not have to be disclosed. Regulation 22 sets out the manner in which documents have to be available at the offices of the authority. Regulation 23 creates offences.

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 “commits 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