UK Offence Report

Protection of right to personal liberty

paragraph 9(1) of SCHEDULE of The St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009

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 No person shall be deprived of his or her personal liberty save as may be authorised by law in any of the following cases— a as a result of his or her unfitness to plead to a criminal charge; b in execution of the sentence or order of a court, whether established for St Helena or some other country, in respect of a criminal offence of which he or she has been convicted; c in execution of an order of a court punishing him or her for contempt of that court or of another court or of a tribunal; d in execution of the order of a court made in order to secure the fulfilment of any obligation imposed on him or her by law; but no person shall be deprived of his or her liberty merely on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation; e in order to bring him or her before a court in execution of the order of a court; f on reasonable suspicion of his or her having committed or of being about to commit a criminal offence under any law; g in the case of a minor— i under the order of a court or in order to bring him or her before a court; or ii with the consent of the minor’s parent or guardian, for his or her education or welfare during any period ending not later than the date when the minor attains the age of majority or such lower age as may be provided by law; h in order to prevent the spread of an infectious or contagious disease; i in the case of a person who is, or is reasonably suspected to be, of unsound mind, addicted to drugs or alcohol, or a vagrant, in order to care for or treat him or her or for the protection of the community; or j in order to prevent the unlawful entry of that person into St Helena, or to effect the expulsion, extradition or other lawful removal of that person from St Helena, or to restrict that person while he or she is being conveyed through St Helena in the course of his or her extradition or removal from one country to another as a wrongfully removed or retained child or as a convicted prisoner.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 paragraph 9(1) of SCHEDULE?

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 St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009.

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

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
8 July 2009
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 establishes a new Constitution for St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. As Ascension and Tristan da Cunha are no longer called Dependencies, the Order changes the name of the territory from St Helena and Dependencies to St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The new Constitution sets out enforceable fundamental rights and freedoms for each of the three islands, which share the same Governor as Her Majesty’s representative, the same Attorney General, and the same Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. For St Helena there is a Legislative Council and an Executive Council, and for each of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha there is an Island Council. New Judicial Service Commissions are established for St Helena and Ascension, and the office of Complaints Commissioner is established for St Helena. Provision is also made for the public services of the three islands and for public finance. The new Constitution replaces the existing Constitution set out in the St Helena Constitution Order 1988.

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 “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