UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 17(1) of The Companies (Particulars of Usual Residential Address) (Confidentiality Orders) Regulations 2002

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, in an application under section 723B of the 1985 Act, makes

a statement which he knows to be false in

a material particular, or recklessly makes

a statement, which is false in

a material particular, shall be 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

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

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: recklessly.

What would breach regulation 17(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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Companies (Particulars of Usual Residential Address) (Confidentiality Orders) Regulations 2002.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

expressed as the statutory maximum (the prescribed sum): the same words mean £5,000 in England and Wales and £10,000 in Scotland.

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
31 March 2002
In force from
2 April 2002
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.

Section 45 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 inserted sections 723B to 723F into the Companies Act 1985 (“the 1985 Act”). Those sections provide for a system of granting confidentiality orders to directors and secretaries of companies formed under the 1985 Act and directors, secretaries and permanent representatives of oversea companies with a place of business, or a branch, in Great Britain within the meaning of the 1985 Act. Confidentiality orders are granted to individuals on application to the Secretary of State when she is satisfied that the availability for inspection of the usual residential address of that individual in the records of the registrar of companies creates, or is likely to create, a serious risk that the individual, or a person who lives with him, will be subjected to violence or intimidation. The effect of the order is that all notifications to the registrar of companies subsequent to the granting of the order in respect of the usual residential address of the beneficiary of an order are kept as confidential records by the registrar which do not form part of his records available for public inspection. These Regulations make further provision for the implementation of the system and for supplemental and consequential amendments to the 1985 Act. Part I of the Regulations makes provision for the application process. Regulation 2 provides for the manner of making applications, for the evidence to be delivered to the Secretary of State in support of the application, and prescribes a fee for an application. Regulation 3 empowers the Secretary of State to refer questions to other bodies for the purposes of deciding upon applications. Regulation 4 prescribes the manner in which the Secretary of State notifies the outcome of an application. Regulation 5 provides for appeals to the Court against the decision of the Secretary of State rejecting an application. Part II of the Regulations makes provision for the address which is to appear on the public record of the registrar of companies on the granting of a confidentiality order in place of the usual residential address of the beneficiary of an order. Regulations 6, 7 and 8 specify how and to whom that address and any changes to it are to be notified in the circumstances set out in those regulations. Regulation 9 requires such an address to be the same in respect of all companies of which the beneficiary of an order is a director, secretary or permanent representative. It also defines the nature of a place that can be such an address and requires the address to be situated within the European Economic Area. Part III of the Regulations makes provision for the duration, renewal and revocation of confidentiality orders. Regulation 10 determines the time for which confidentiality orders are to remain in force and makes provision for the operation of confidentiality orders when they are sought to be renewed. Regulation 11 describes the circumstances in which the Secretary of State may revoke confidentiality orders when orders have been obtained on false, misleading or inaccurate information, when certain information relating to the beneficiary required by the 1985 Act has not been delivered to the registrar within a prescribed period and where a service address does not comply with the requirements of Regulation 9. It provides for an order to be revoked where the beneficiary is also the beneficiary of a confidentiality order under the Limited Liability Partnerships (Particulars of Usual Residential Address) (Confidentiality Orders) Regulations 2002 and that order is revoked under those regulations. It also prescribes the procedure to be followed on the revocation of an order. Regulation 12 provides for notice to be given by a beneficiary of an order when it ceases to have effect. Part IV of the Regulations makes provision for granting access to confidential records of the registrar and imposes a prohibition on the disclosure of relevant information as defined in section 723C(5) of the 1985 Act. Regulation 13 grants access to confidential records to the competent authorities listed in Schedule 1. Regulation 14 prohibits disclosure of relevant information by persons obtaining such information in the circumstances set out in paragraph (1) of that regulation, while the remaining paragraphs of the regulation provide exemptions from that prohibition. Part V of the Regulations contains provisions on the manner and form of certain notices to be given to and by the Secretary of State under these Regulations (Regulation 15) and provision is made in Regulation 17 for breaches of the prohibition in Regulation 14 and for knowingly or recklessly making statements, false in a material particular, in an application under section 723B to constitute an offence. Regulation 16 makes the modifications in Schedule 2 to the enactments specified in that Schedule. The amendments seek to ensure that the enactments, under which companies formed under the 1985 Act (sections 10, 288, 289, 290 of, and Schedule 1 to, the 1985 Act) and oversea companies (sections 691, 692 of, and Schedule 21A to, the 1985 Act) are required to notify the usual residential address of directors, secretaries and permanent representatives, are modified to require notification of the service address of a beneficiary of an order to the registrar for the public record and the continued notification of changes in the particulars of the usual residential address of a beneficiary to the registrar for confidential records defined in section 723D of the 1985 Act. Schedule 2 (paragraph 2) also amends section 288 of the 1985 Act to remove the right of members of the company and the public to inspect that part of the register kept by a company under that section which contains particulars of the usual residential address of beneficiaries of confidentiality orders.

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