UK Offence Report

Use of evidence

regulation 9(14) of The Railways (Accident Investigation and Reporting) Regulations 2005

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

14 An owner of railway property, a railway industry body, or a manufacturer or supplier of equipment, components or services to an owner of railway property or to a railway industry body, that— a moves or uses evidence that is relevant to an accident or incident of a type described in Schedule 1 or 4 without the consent of the Branch under paragraph (2)(a); or b moves or uses evidence that is relevant to an accident or incident of a type described in Schedule 2, 3 or 5 where the Branch has given notice to the contrary under paragraph (2)(b), shall be guilty of an offence unless that movement or use of such evidence is for a purpose specified in paragraph (1).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 manufacturer
Conduct
acting without the licence or authorisation required
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 manufacturer 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; qualified by absence of consent (an element).

What would breach regulation 9(14)?

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. Starting the activity before the licence is granted, rather than on the day it takes effect under the Railways (Accident Investigation and Reporting) Regulations 2005.
  2. Carrying on after a licence has expired, been surrendered or been suspended.
  3. Relying on somebody else's authorisation, where the provision requires the person doing the act to hold one.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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

The Ministry of Justice records offences under this instrument against offence code 9557 — 09557 - Triable either way offences [excluding R.6(7)] under Railways (Accident Investigation and Reporting) Regulations 2005. That code may cover several provisions of the instrument, so a count against it is not a count of prosecutions under this provision alone.

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have their own code in the MoJ’s Outcomes by Offence data tool. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
19 July 2005
In force from
17 October 2005
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.

These Regulations implement articles 19 to 25 and Annex V of Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 29th April 2004 on the safety of the Community’s railways and amending Council Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification, in so far as those articles have not already been implemented by Part 1 of the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (c. 20) (“the 2003 Act”), which establishes the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, (“the Branch”), being a permanent body given power to investigate railway accidents and incidents. The Regulations set out the procedures for dealing with specified accidents and incidents, including notification requirements, dealing with evidence and publishing reports and recommendations. The regulations — a contain a list of definitions the purposes of the Regulations (regulation 2); b provide for an accident or incident occurring on a railway of a type described in regulation 3 not to be treated as an accident or incident for the purposes of Part 1 of the 2003 Act (regulation 3); c require railway industry bodies (as defined in regulation 2(1)) to notify to the Branch the accidents and incidents listed in schedules 1 to 5 within the prescribed time limits, to provide the Branch with such information about the accident or incident listed in regulation 4(7) as the railway industry body is reasonably able to provide at the time of the notification and to provide further information subsequently (regulation 4); d require the Branch to conduct its investigations in a manner that will not undermine its independence from the persons listed in the regulations, describe the manner in which the Branch will determine whether to investigate an accident or incident, when it is to involve other member States in its investigations and empower it to determine the extent and procedure to be followed in carrying out an investigation (regulation 5); e provide for the appointment of persons to conduct or participate in an investigation by the Branch, and for persons to provide assistance to the Branch (regulation 6); f prohibit access to the site of an accident or incident, or the removal of anything from the site of an accident or incident, except for the limited purposes described and provided the Branch is notified of such action (regulation 7); g require evidence relating to an accident or incident to be preserved and confer a right for the inspector carrying out an investigation to require an immediate listing of evidence (regulation 8); h restrict the movement or use of evidence relating to an accident or incident, provide for the testing or analysis by the Branch of certain evidence to be carried out with the knowledge and in the presence of others, and provide for the disposal of evidence no longer required by the Branch or another investigator (regulation 9); i permit or require the disclosure of certain evidence or information and prohibit the disclosure of certain evidence unless disclosure is ordered by a court (regulation 10); j provide for the making and publication of a report into an accident or incident and for certain reports to include the information described in Schedule 6 (regulation 11); k require a person to whom recommendations made by the Branch are addressed to ensure that these are considered and, where appropriate, acted on (regulation 12); l require the Branch to consider representations by persons affected by the accident or incident (regulation 13); m provide for the publication of an annual report on the activities of the Branch (regulation 14); n permit the Branch to conduct studies into, monitor and analyse any matter it considers may be relevant to the effective investigation of accidents and incidents, publish information and advice that is relevant to its general aims and require the Branch to actively exchange information with the investigation bodies established in other member States (regulation 15); and o create offences and penalties (regulation 16, as read with regulations 4(12), 6(7), 7(6), 8(7), 9(13) to (16), 10(9), 12(5) and 13(6)). p disapply certain provisions in Scotland (regulation 17). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business is available from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, The Wharf, Stores Road, Derby, DE21 4BA.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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