UK Offence Report

Disclosure of information

regulation 35B(1) of The Representation of the People (Northern Ireland)(Amendment) Regulations 2007

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 A person commits an offence if he discloses information obtained under these Regulations to

a third party except—

a for the purpose mentioned in paragraph 1(4B) of Schedule

2 to the 1983 Act; or

b for the purposes of any criminal or civil proceedings.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 35B(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 discloses information obtained under these Regulations to a third party except— a for the purpose mentioned in paragraph 1(4B) of Schedule 2 to the 1983 Act.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland)(Amendment) Regulations 2007.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

in Northern Ireland a reference to a level is construed as referring to the standard scale as it currently stands (Fines and Penalties (NI) Order 1984 art.5(3)), not as it stood when the instrument was made.

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
23 May 2007
In force from
6 June 2007
Extent
N.I.

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.

These Regulations amend the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2001 (S.I.2001/400)(“2001 Regulations”) to enable the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland to request information from local and public authorities in Northern Ireland. Section 2 of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006 (c.33) (“2006 Act”) removed the legal obligation to conduct an annual canvass in Northern Ireland. The annual canvass has been replaced with a more extensive system of continuous updating of the electoral register. The Chief Electoral Officer, as the registration officer for all constituencies in Northern Ireland, has responsibility for maintaining the electoral register in Northern Ireland. Section 10ZB of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c.2), as inserted by section 4 of the 2006 Act, sets out the “relevant registration objectives” which the registration officer must aim to meet in maintaining the register. In order to assist the registration officer in meeting the registration objectives under the new system of continuous updating, these Regulations enable him to request information for the purposes of ensuring that the register is accurate and comprehensive. Regulation 3 substitutes new regulations 35, 35A and 35B for regulations 35 and 35A of the 2001 Regulations, which gave the registration officer powers to inspect records of certain public authorities and to request information relating to national insurance numbers from the Department for Work and Pensions respectively. New regulation 35 sets out the form which a request for information by the registration officer must take and the response required by the recipients of the request. New regulation 35A(2) sets out the public authorities which are required to supply the registration officer with information following a request made under regulation 35. New regulation 35A(3) to (6) set out the information which the registration officer may require in relation to people and buildings. New regulation 35B safeguards the onwards transmission of the information by providing that the information may only be passed to a third party for the purposes of meeting the registration objectives or for criminal or civil proceedings. It is an offence to disclose information in breach of these safeguards.

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 “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