UK Offence Report

Offences in respect of contravention of Part VI regulations

regulation 115(4) of The Representation of the People (England and Wales)(Amendment) Regulations 2002

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

4 A person to whom paragraph (5) below applies shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale where— a a contravention of the provisions referred to in paragraph (2) above has occurred on the part of a person (“the employed person”) in the employment, or otherwise under the direction or control, of the company or other organisation in which the person to whom paragraph (5) applies holds office; and b the person to whom paragraph (5) below applies has failed to take the steps specified in paragraph (6) below.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 115(4)?

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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Representation of the People (England and Wales)(Amendment) Regulations 2002, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. 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
Unlimited
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

level 5 is unlimited in England and Wales for offences committed on or after 12 March 2015 (LASPO 2012 s.85, S.I. 2015/664).

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 Representation of the People (Form of Canvass) (England and Wales) Regulations 2003
Revoked on
30 July 2003
Made
18 July 2002
In force from
Not determined
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 amend the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 (“the principal Regulations”). The main changes are those made by the regulations inserted into the principal Regulations by regulation 15 of these Regulations. The inserted regulations make fresh provision in respect of the free supply and the sale of the register of electors. Regulations 46 to 49 of the principal Regulations (which currently provide for such supply and sale) are revoked by regulation 3 of these Regulations. Regulation 93 of the inserted regulations provides for an edited version of the register of electors. This version does not contain the names of those persons who have requested the exclusion of their names from this version of the register. The request is made either in the form of return of the annual canvass under section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (“the 1983 Act”), as substituted by Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”), or in the form of application to be registered. The contents of such applications are prescribed by regulation 26 of the principal Regulations and that regulation is amended by regulation 8 of these Regulations to make provision for that request. The form to be used for the canvass is prescribed by Part I of the Schedule to these Regulations. Under regulation 110 of the inserted regulations, the edited version of the register is available for sale without restriction and the fees payable are prescribed. By contrast, the inserted regulations introduce new restrictions not only on the sale of the full version of the register but also on its use consequent on its supply free of charge. Breach of the restrictions is an offence under inserted regulation 115. A copy of the full version of the register may not be supplied by a registration officer otherwise than in accordance with an enactment (which, by virtue of the definition in inserted regulation 92(2), includes subordinate legislation), including the principal Regulations (regulation 94(3)). No copy may be sold except to the persons and organisations falling within inserted regulations 113 (government departments) and 114 (credit reference agencies). Such sales are subject to the fees and conditions set out in inserted regulations 111 and 112, in particular the restrictions on use contained in inserted regulation 112(4) and (5). The purchasers are restricted to the uses which are authorised by regulations 113 and 114. Inserted regulation 94 restricts the supply of the full register (or information contained in it) by the registration officer and his staff. References to the register include the notices published under sections 13A(2) and 13B(3) of the 1983 Act (as substituted by Schedule 1 to the 2000 Act) amending it. Inserted regulation 95 places restrictions on the use of the full register which is supplied under section 3(1) of the Juries Act 1974 and regulation 96 places restrictions in respect of supply under other enactments (including subordinate legislation) or use of the register information however obtained. Inserted regulations 97 to 101 require the registration officer to supply free of charge, on publication, a copy of the full register to the organisations to which those regulations apply. The regulations also place restrictions on the use of the register by those organisations. Inserted regulations 102 to 109 require the registration officer to supply free of charge and on request copies of the full register to the persons and organisations to which the regulations apply. They also set out restrictions on use by those organisations. Regulation 4 of these Regulations prescribes the form to be used in order for the registration officer to carry out the annual canvass. Regulations 6, 9, 10 and 11 of these Regulations amend provisions in the principal Regulations relating to the manner of publication of the register (including notices amending it) and the list of overseas electors and to the taking of copies of such documents to introduce new restrictions. The register (which, by virtue of inserted regulation 93(5), means the full register) is to be available for inspection only under supervision. Only hand-written copies may be taken. Regulation 12 of these Regulations amends the principal Regulations to include express provision about the addresses to which postal ballot papers are to be sent. Regulations 13 and 14 of these Regulations simplify the procedure in respect of spoilt postal ballot papers and the checks required in respect of the declaration of identity for postal ballot papers, respectively.

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.

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