UK Offence Report

Power to immobilise vehicles

regulation 12(4) of The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (General Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 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

4 A person contravening paragraph (3) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

2 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 12(4)?

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 Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (General Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 2013.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
26 February 2013
In force from
25 March 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.

These Regulations revoke and replace the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (General Provisions) (Wales) (No.2) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1214 (W.122)) and the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Penalty Charge Notices, Enforcement and Adjudication) (Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/609). These Regulations provide for the civil enforcement of road traffic contraventions in Wales in accordance with Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. Part 6 of the 2004 Act and statutory instruments made thereunder supersede the provisions of Part II of and Schedule 3 to the Road Traffic Act 1991. These Regulations should be read in conjunction with the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/359) and the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) Removed Vehicles (Wales) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/361 (W.43)). Regulation 3 makes provision for the service of a penalty charge notice by post. Regulation 4 enables a penalty charge to be imposed for specified types of road traffic contravention. A penalty charge is payable by the owner of the vehicle concerned (regulation 5(2)), except in the circumstances specified in regulation 5(3) (vehicle hired from a vehicle hiring firm under a vehicle hiring agreement). In accordance with regulation 6, a penalty charge is not to be imposed except on the basis of a record produced by an “approved device” (see section 92(1) of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Approved Devices) (Wales) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/360 (W.42)) or information given by a civil enforcement officer as to conduct observed by that officer. Regulation 7 provides that a penalty charge is not to be payable for a road traffic contravention where the contravention is the subject of criminal proceedings or a fixed penalty notice has been given under the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, but, if a penalty charge is in fact paid in either of those circumstances, it must be refunded by the enforcement authority. Regulation 8 defines a penalty charge notice and introduces the Schedules which make detailed provision as to the form and content of such notices. Regulation 9 enables a civil enforcement officer, where that officer has reason to believe that a penalty charge is payable for a stationary vehicle in a civil enforcement area, to fix a penalty charge notice to the vehicle or hand one to the person appearing to him to be in charge of it. Regulation 10 makes provision for the service of a penalty charge notice by post, on the basis of the evidence of an approved device or where a civil enforcement officer has been prevented by some person from serving one in accordance with regulation 9, or had begun to prepare a penalty charge notice in accordance with regulation 9, but the vehicle was driven away before it had been served, and for time limits applicable to notices served by post. Regulation 11 makes it an offence to interfere with a penalty charge notice served by its being fixed to a vehicle, except by or under the authority of the owner or person in charge of the vehicle or the enforcement authority. Provision is made by Part 3 for the immobilisation of vehicles for parking contraventions. Regulation 12 defines when an immobilisation device may be fixed to a vehicle, requires a notice to be fixed to the vehicle at the time of immobilisation and creates the offences of interfering with the notice or the immobilisation device. Regulation 13 specifies exceptions to the general power to immobilise and regulation 14 specifies the pre-requisites for the release of a vehicle from an immobilisation device. Part 4 provides for the appointment of adjudicators by enforcement authorities and for the functions of those authorities relating to adjudicators to be discharged through joint committees. Regulation 15 requires the Welsh enforcement authorities to act through one or more joint committees and also provides for arrangements under the 1991 Act to be continued as between Welsh and (where required) English enforcement authorities until superseded. Enforcement authorities are required by regulation 16 to appoint a sufficient number of adjudicators and provision is made for parking adjudicators holding office under the 1991 Act immediately before the coming into force of these Regulations to continue in office. Regulation 17 deals with the expenses of the relevant authorities, providing for the Welsh enforcement authorities to refer decisions concerning the apportionment of expenses to an independent arbitrator and gives the Welsh Ministers power to give directions to the joint committee to refer such matters for arbitration. Part 5 is concerned with the enforcement of penalty charges. Regulations 18 and 19 provide for the service of a notice to owner by an enforcement authority in respect of an unpaid penalty charge and specify the contents of a notice to owner and the time limit for service. Provision is made by regulations 20, 21 and 22 for the service of charge certificates in respect of unpaid penalty charges (where a notice to owner or penalty charge notice under regulation 10 has been served and the avenues of appeal have not been pursued or have been pursued unsuccessfully), for charge certificates to be enforced through a county court and for county court orders to be set aside where the respondent serves a witness statement stating one of the matters mentioned in regulation 22(2). In Part 6, regulation 23 applies section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (“the 1984 Act”), with modifications, to the income and expenditure of enforcement authorities from parking places under Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. Regulation 24 makes provision for separate accounts to be kept in respect of the income and expenditure from bus lane and moving traffic contraventions respectively. Regulation 25 provides that a surplus in an account kept under section 55 of the 1984 Act must be carried forward and regulation 26 specifies the purposes for which those funds, and any surplus resulting from bus lane and moving traffic contraventions, must be applied. Part 7 deals with revocation of previous legislation and amendment to Schedule 7 to the Traffic Management Act 2004 to allow further traffic signs to be included for moving traffic contravention purposes. A full Regulatory Impact Assessment and Explanatory Memorandum can be obtained from the Public Transport Division, Transport, Local Government and Communities, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.

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