UK Offence Report

1 Any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 7 is guilty of an offence.

regulation 22(1) of The Civil Aviation (Allocation of Scarce Capacity) 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 Any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation

7 is 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

1 Any person who without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 7 is guilty of an offence.

What would breach regulation 22(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 without reasonable excuse contravenes regulation 7.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Civil Aviation (Allocation of Scarce Capacity) Regulations 2007, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

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
17 December 2007
In force from
31 January 2008
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 make provision to comply with article 5 of Regulation 847/2004 of the European Parliament and Council on the negotiation and implementation of air service agreements between Member States and third countries (OJ No L157, 30.04.2004, p.7). Article 5 of that regulation provides that a Member State shall ensure a distribution of traffic rights among eligible Community air carriers on the basis of a non-discriminatory and transparent procedure. These regulations set out the regime for distributing these traffic rights where scarce capacity exists. Provision is made for definitions (regulation 2) and consequential amendments to secondary legislation (regulation 3). Regulation 4 places a duty on the Secretary of State to notify the CAA when she considers that scarce capacity will arise within 6 months. Regulation 5 makes provision for the situation where scarce capacity no longer exists and regulation 6 sets out the scope of regulations 7 to 24. Regulation 7 places a restriction of using an aircraft for the carriage for reward of passengers or cargo on a capacity constrained route, without the qualifying carrier holding a scarce capacity allocation certificate. Regulation 8 prescribes the function of allocating scarce capacity as a function of the CCA and regulation 9 sets out the duties to which the CAA must have regard when allocating scarce capacity. Regulation 10 contains the requirements which the applicant must fulfil when applying for a scarce capacity allocation certificate and places notification requirements on the CAA. Provision is made in regulation 11 for revoking or varying a scarce capacity allocation certificate without application being made and regulation 12 makes provision for the making of an objection or representation in respect of an application for a scarce capacity allocation certificate. Regulation 13 states who has a right to be heard at a hearing and regulation 14 deals with preliminary hearings. Regulation 15 contains notice provisions relating to the hearing which the CAA must comply with and what information they must provide in connection with the hearing. Regulation 16 sets out the procedure which must be followed at the hearing. Regulation 17 requires the CAA to act with due speed when deciding whether to grant, refuse to grant, revoke or vary a scarce capacity allocation certificate and when notifying the applicant of their decision. Regulation 18 contains notice provisions and regulation 19 sets out requirements on the form of the scarce capacity allocation certificate and how long it shall remain in force. Regulations 20 to 23 are enforcement provisions. Regulation 20 provides that the regulations will be enforced by the CAA and regulation 21 empowers the CAA to serve a direction detaining an aircraft if it has reason to believe that it will be used in contravention of regulation 7. Regulation 22 makes it an offence to contravene regulation 7, or a direction under regulation 21. Regulation 23 makes provision for offences by a body corporate. These Regulations are made under powers contained in the Civil Aviation Act 1982, except in their application to regulation 7 (restrictions on the carriage for reward) and the provisions relating to the CAA's functions (regulation 9) and to offences (regulations 22 and 23) where the power is provided by section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972. A full regulatory impact assessment has not been provided for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

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