UK Offence Report

Information sharing

article 3(2) of The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2006

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

2 A person who, without the agreement of the Commissioners, discloses to another person information which has been disclosed to OSCR under paragraph (1) 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
breaching the provision
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 3(2)?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2006.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
3 months

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
Status not determined
Made
14 February 2006
In force from
Not determined
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 provision in consequence of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (asp 10) (“the Act”). The Act creates an office to be known as the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and a body corporate, to be known as the Scottish Charity Regulator, which is to be the holder of that office. The Act also reforms charity law in Scotland generally. Article 2 adds the office known as the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator to those offices which are not ministerial offices in the Scottish Administration. Article 3 makes provision so as to permit the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to disclose information to the Scottish Charity Regulator for the purpose of the functions of that office. Article 4 is concerned with action to be taken by the registrar of companies or the Financial Services Authority on receipt of information from the Scottish Charity Regulator relating to the conversion of a company or a registered society (under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 (c. 12)) into a Scottish charitable incorporated organisation. Article 5 and the Schedule make modifications of primary and secondary legislation in consequence of the Act.

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.

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