UK Offence Report

Processing of information to confirm entitlement to remain registered

article 9(2) of The Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (Transitional Provisions) Order 2013

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

2 A person who discloses information in breach of paragraph (1) is guilty of an offence and liable—

a on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding two years, or to

a fine, or to both;

b on summary conviction, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

12 months, or to

a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 article 9(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. On these words an offence is committed where a person discloses information in breach of paragraph (1).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (Transitional Provisions) Order 2013, 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
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
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
18 December 2013
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 contains transitional provisions relating to the introduction of individual elector registration in Great Britain. They are made under Schedule 5 to the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013. The new system is expected to begin on 10th June 2014 in England and Wales and on 19th September 2014 in Scotland. Article 5 shortens the period immediately before commencement in which applications for registration in Scotland may be determined. Article 6 requires each electoral registration officer (ERO) in Great Britain to check whether each person with an entry on an electoral register (with some exceptions) is entitled to remain registered. Article 7 makes provision about the information an ERO must verify for the purpose of confirming entitlement to remain registered and the process by which verification must take place. It provides for the disclosure of the information and its comparison with data held by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and specifies the evidence which supports a person’s entitlement to remain registered. Article 9 makes it a criminal offence to disclose the information except for the purposes of confirmation or for the purpose of any civil or criminal proceedings. Article 11 requires an ERO to give notice in writing of a person’s entitlement to remain registered. Article 12 empowers EROs to use the verification procedure in article 7 in relation to people whose entries on the register were carried forward at the conclusion of the final old canvass. Article 13 prescribes the period within which invitations to register must be given to existing electors in 2014. Articles 14 and 15 provide for the first new canvass in Scotland to be delayed and, as a consequence, for the revised version of the register in Scotland to be published by 28th February 2015. Article 16 prescribes the period within which canvass forms must be given for the second new canvass throughout Great Britain. Article 17 makes provision about invitations to register in relation to existing electors which EROs are required to give. Article 18 requires the ERO to send a second invitation if no response is received to the first invitation and a third invitation if no response is received to the second invitation. It also provides for visits to an address. Article 19 makes provision about requirements to make an application for registration by a specified date, including the manner and circumstances in which an ERO may and may not give a person notice of such a requirement, the form of notice and the cancellation of a notice. Articles 20 to 23 make provision as to civil penalties. Article 20 sets the level of the civil penalty. It requires an ERO to give a person notice in writing of the civil penalty and prescribes the form and content of that notice. Articles 21 to 23 provide for payment, enforcement and cancellation of a civil penalty and for reviews of and appeals against a civil penalty. Article 24 provides for the manner in which an ERO must notify certain absent voters that their entry has been removed from the register. Article 25 enables EROs to find out whether a proxy for an absent voter is registered in another officer’s registers. An overall impact assessment in relation to the individual electoral registration scheme is available on the Cabinet Office website at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/IER-Impact.

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.

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