UK Offence Report

Application to punish for Contempt of court

paragraph 6.22 of SCHEDULE 2 of The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 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

Disobedience to

a disclosure order or to

a customer information order is an offence: see sections 359 and 366 of the 2002 Act.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 6.22 of SCHEDULE 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 Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2009.

Penalty

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

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

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
19 July 2009
In force from
5 October 2009
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 Rules) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Rules add the following new provisions to The Criminal Procedure Rules 2005: a new Part 6 (Investigation orders) that deals with applications for production and other orders under the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. These new rules supersede the existing rules in Part 62, which apply only to some applications under the 2002 Act. a new Part 22 (Disclosure) that consolidates, revises and simplifies the content of existing Parts 22, 23, 25 and 26. a new Part 27 (Witness statements), in substitution for the existing Part 27, that revises and simplifies the rules about the content and service of written witness statements. a new Part 62 (Contempt of court) that deals with applications for the punishment for contempt of court of those who disobey court orders, or who disclose prosecution material without authority. a new Part 76 (Costs) that revises and simplifies the rules about applications for costs orders. These new rules supersede the existing rules in Part 78, and deal with applications for all the costs orders that the criminal courts can make. new rules in Part 2 (Understanding and applying the Rules) make transitional provision and explain when the new rules in Parts 6, 22, 62 and 76 will apply. In addition, these Rules make the following amendments to The Criminal Procedure Rules 2005: Part 3 (Case management) is amended to require specifically that steps are taken to facilitate the attendance of witnesses. Part 4 (Service of documents) is amended to require the personal service of an application to punish for contempt of court. Part 5 (Forms) is amended to incorporate the rules about court records contained in the existing Part 6 (Court records), leaving Part 6 available for the new rules about investigation orders. Part 14 (The indictment) is amended so as no longer to imply that the signature of a draft indictment is required for it to become an indictment. Part 19 (Bail in magistrates' courts and the Crown Court) is amended to require specifically that the providers of electronic monitoring and other bail services are notified of relevant bail conditions, and variations of them. Part 32 (International co-operation) is amended to provide for the court’s consideration of an “overseas freezing order” (an order to secure evidence sought in another state), and to remove the current requirement that magistrates' courts' records of overseas orders must be kept in a separate book. Part 33 (Expert evidence) is amended to incorporate and revise the rules about serving expert evidence contained in the existing Part 24 (Disclosure of expert evidence). Part 59 (Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 rules for restraint proceedings) is amended to provide for an application to punish for contempt of court a person who disobeys a restraint order. Part 65 (Appeal to the Court of Appeal: general rules) is amended to give the Court of Appeal a discretion whether or not to hear oral representations on an appeal against an order restricting public access to proceedings in the Crown Court. Parts 23, 24, 25, 26, 77 and 78 are omitted, in consequence of the consolidation of rules made by the other changes. other amendments bring up to date references to the new Supreme Court and other cross-references in The Criminal Procedure Rules 2005. the Arrangement of Rules is amended to accommodate all these changes. The changes made by these Rules come into force on 5th October 2009.

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 0.62.

Basis
the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.62 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