UK Offence Report

Amendments to the Mobile Roaming (European Communities) Regulations 2007

regulation 3 of The Mobile Roaming (European Communities) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (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

3 After regulation 5 insert— Offences in connection with information requirements 5A 1 A person who fails to provide information in accordance with an information requirement is guilty of an offence and will be liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Legal burden on the defendant

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 gives a defence the defendant must prove, on the balance of probabilities. A legal burden of that kind can be read down to a merely evidential one under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 where placing it on the defendant would be disproportionate (R v Lambert [2001] UKHL 37; Sheldrake v DPP [2004] UKHL 43).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

The defence, as drafted

s against a person (“A”) for an offence under paragraph (1) it is a defence for A to show— a that it was not reasonably practicable for A to comply with the requirement within the period specified by OFCOM; but b that A has taken all reasonable steps to provide the required information after the end of that period. 3 Proceedings for an offence und

What would breach regulation 3?

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 fails to provide information in accordance with an information requirement.
  2. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Mobile Roaming (European Communities) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
  3. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  4. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
7 October 2014
In force from
1 November 2014
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 complete the implementation of articles 16, 17 and 18 of the Regulation (EU) No. 531/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13th June 2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union (“the new Roaming Regulation”) (O.J. No L 172, 30.06.2012, p 10). The new Roaming Regulation repealed and replaced the Regulation (EC) No. 717/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27th June 2007 on roaming on public mobile telephone networks within the Community and amending Directive 2002/21/EC as amended by Regulation (EC) No. 544/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18th June 2009 (“the old Roaming Regulation”). These Regulations amend the Mobile Roaming (European Communities) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/1933, “the 2007 Regulations”), which implemented the old Roaming Regulation, and follow the Mobile Roaming (European Communities) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/822), which contained the bulk of the provisions implementing the new Roaming Regulation . Regulation 3 of these Regulations inserts new regulation 5A into the 2007 Regulations, imposing criminal penalties for breach of information requirements in line with those in section 144 of the Communications Act 2003. Regulation 2 makes a related change to regulation 4 of the 2007 Regulations. Regulation 4 makes transitional provisions.

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 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