UK Offence Report

Disclosure and other processing of information

article 7(2) of The Electoral Registration Pilot Scheme Order 2014

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; and

b on summary conviction, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

12 months, or to

a fine, 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 7(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 Pilot Scheme Order 2014, 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
25 November 2014
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.

As part of the introduction of individual electoral registration, under changes made by the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (c.6), this Order establishes a pilot scheme enabling information about entries in electoral registers in specified areas of Great Britain to be compared with information held by the Secretary of State for Transport about individuals’ driving records and vehicle registration documents (article 4). Information held by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions may also be used in the exercise. Article 5 provides that the comparison must be made for the purposes of verifying existing entries in the electoral register and finding the details of people who are not registered but are entitled to be registered. The Lord President is to inform the ministers and the registration officers involved in the pilot about the results of the comparison and the usefulness of the information in fulfilling those purposes. Under article 7 it is an offence to disclose the information for any other purpose, unless it is required for criminal or civil proceedings. Article 8 requires there to be an agreement between the three ministers and registration officers as to the processing of the information. The Order ceases to have effect on 31st October 2015 (article 2). An overall impact assessment in relation to the individual electoral registration scheme is available on the Cabinet Office website at https:///www.gov.uk/government/publications/individual-electoral-registration-impact-assessment.

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