UK Offence Report

Onward disclosure of information received from HMRC

regulation 4(1) of The European Administrative Co-Operation (Taxation) Regulations 2012 (revoked)

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 public authority commits an offence if—

a it discloses relevant information, and

b the disclosure is not permitted by paragraph (3) below.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an public authority
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 an public authority 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 4(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. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the European Administrative Co-Operation (Taxation) Regulations 2012.

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
10 December 2012
In force from
1 January 2013
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.

Since 1977 mutual assistance between Member States of the European Community in the field of direct taxation has been undertaken via Council Directive 77/799/EC. This directive has been replaced by Council Directive 2011/16/EU, adopted by the Council of the European Union in February 2011, which has effect from 1 January 2013. Most of the new provisions are administrative in effect and do not require legislative provision. However, regulation 2 meets a new requirement to designate a competent authority and a central liaison office for work concerning the directive. Regulation 3 permits public authorities to respond to requests under the new directive without breaching prohibitions on disclosure of information. Under section 18 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (‘CRCA’) information held by HMRC in connection with its functions is subject to an obligation of non-disclosure, supported in section 19 by a criminal offence of unlawful disclosure. As public authorities may now receive such information from HMRC in order to be able to comply with obligations under the new directive, and the information would not otherwise be restricted in their possession, regulation 4 creates a criminal offence of unlawful disclosure similar to that in section 19 (subject to the lower maximum penalty for summary offences permitted when implementing European Union law by virtue of the European Communities Act 1972). Regulation 5 provides defences, provides for penalties, and imposes a requirement for consent to prosecute, in England and Wales of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and in Northern Ireland the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland or the Commissioners. Under Scottish law the consent of the Lord Advocate (or judicial permission for a private prosecution) would be required. Regulation 6 changes references in existing legislation to the old directive, to references to the new. Regulation 7 repeals enactments that with the repeal of the old directive are no longer required (being permission to exchange information now permitted by section 18(3) CRCA, permission to notify instruments for other Member States, for which statutory power is not required, and the deeming of tax to include relevant foreign tax, which is now provided by section 173 Finance Act 2006).

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