UK Offence Report

General restriction on referendum expenses

regulation 6(5) of The Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums)(England) Regulations 2012

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

5 Where an offence under paragraph (3) which has been committed by

a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of,

a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any other person purporting to act in such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of an offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 body corporate
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 body corporate 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 6(5)?

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 Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums)(England) Regulations 2012.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
1 year
Maximum prison (on indictment)
1 year

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
8 February 2012
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations replace the Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums)(England) Regulations 2007 to make provision for the conduct of referendums held under Part 1A of the Local Government Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”), or by virtue of regulations or an order made under any provision of that Part. These Regulations only apply in relation to England. The referendums will relate to the question of whether a local authority – a county, district or London borough council – should change their governance arrangements to a different form permitted under section 9B(1) of the 2000 Act. Regulation 3 and Schedule 1 prescribe the form of words of the question to be asked in a referendum held under Part 1A. Regulation 4 requires the local authority to fulfil certain publicity requirements relating to the referendum and imposes time limits by which notice must be given. Regulation 5 imposes restrictions on the material that may be published, displayed or distributed by and on behalf of the authority in the period beginning 28 days before the date of the referendum. Regulation 6 imposes a referendum expenses limit on the amount that may be incurred by way of referendum expenses. Schedule 2 makes provision about the matters relevant to referendum expenses. Under Regulation 6(3) there is an offence for expenditure in excess of the referendum expenses limit. Regulation 7 provides for amounts relevant to the use of certain property, services and facilities to be treated as incurred by way of referendum expenses for the purposes of regulation 6. Regulation 8 provides for the conduct of a referendum which is not combined with any other polls. These Regulations set out the rules for the conduct of a referendum in full (the Local Government Act Referendums Rules), in Schedule 3. Other electoral legislation is applied, with modifications, to facilitate the conduct of referendums (as set out in Tables 1 to 6 of Schedule 4). Regulation 9 specifies who is to be the counting officer at the referendum. Regulation 10 makes provision for the combination of polls. Regulation 11 makes provision for the conduct of referendums when combined with the poll at elections. The rules for conducting such referendums are again set out in full (the Local Government Act Referendums (Combination of Polls) Rules), in Schedule 5. Other electoral legislation is applied to facilitate the conduct of such referendums (as set out in Tables 1 to 6 of Schedule 4). Regulation 12 makes provision about the conduct of elections when they are combined with the poll at a referendum. Regulation 13 makes provision about the conduct of a referendum where the poll is combined with another referendum. Regulation 14 deals with the result of the referendum, subject to the provisions which allow the result of the referendum to be challenged. Regulation 15 makes provision for a referendum to be challenged by the bringing of a referendum petition. The provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c.2) contained in Schedule 6 are applied with modifications to facilitate the bringing of a referendum petition to challenge a referendum. Schedule 7 makes modifications to the Election Petition Rules 1960, when applied to referendums by regulation 15(9). Regulations 16 and 17 address the immediate consequences of the bringing of a referendum petition (as to whether the authority may implement or continue to operate new governance arrangements in pursuance of the referendum) and how a referendum petition is to be determined. Regulation 18 provides for certain days to be ignored in computing certain periods of time for the purposes of regulation 4(1). Regulation 19 exempts advertisements relating specifically to the referendum from regulations under the Town and County Planning Act 1990 (c.8) controlling the display of advertisements. Regulation 20 provides that premises used in relation to the referendum for public meetings or the taking of the poll are to be treated as unoccupied for rating purposes. A full impact assessment has not been produced for these Regulations as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.

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 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