UK Offence Report

Processing of information disclosed

regulation 3(2) of The Electoral Registration (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) 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

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 3(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 (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) Regulations 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
26 March 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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations require registration officers in Great Britain to disclose the electoral registers and any related information maintained by them and authorise the comparison of that information against data held by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in order to assist registration officers in Great Britain for the purposes set out in paragraph 1A of Schedule 2 to the Representation of the People Act 1983, as amended by the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013. Those purposes are— to verify information relating to a person who is registered in a register maintained by the officer, to ascertain the names and addresses of people who are not registered but who are entitled to be registered, or to identify those people who are registered but who are not entitled to be registered. Regulation 2 requires each registration officer in Great Britain to disclose to the Lord President a copy of the electoral registers maintained by that officer and any other related information on a date or dates to be notified to the registration officer by the Lord President in writing but which shall be, for England, by 17th February 2014 and, for Scotland and Wales, by 10th March 2014. Regulation 2(3) enables the Lord President to specify in writing to the registration officer the format and means by which the information must be disclosed. The Lord President may then disclose the information to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for comparison against the data it holds set out in regulation 2(5). The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions may disclose the results of the comparison to the Lord President, who may disclose them to the registration officer for the purposes set out above. Regulation 3 makes provision for the processing of the information disclosed under these Regulations. Regulation 3(1) provides that information may only be disclosed for one of the purposes set out above or for the purpose of any civil or criminal proceedings. Regulation 3(2) makes it an offence to disclose information in breach of regulation 3(1). Regulation 4 provides, in accordance with paragraph 1A(3)(d) of Schedule 2, that where the Lord President has imposed requirements on the processing of information disclosed under these regulations, that information must be processed in accordance with those requirements. If the Lord President imposes any such requirements in relation to information to be disclosed under these regulations, he must do so before the registration officer is required to disclose that information under regulation 2(1). A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument 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.

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