Amendments to the Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004

regulation 3(3)(c) of The Firearms Regulations 2015

• Status not determined
• Strict liability
• Firearms, offensive weapons, explosives and poisons

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

c after paragraph (6) insert— 6A A person who fails to comply with paragraph (1)(c) shall be guilty of an offence. ;

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

failing to do something the instrument requires

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(3)(c)?

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 comply with paragraph (1)(c).
2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Firearms Regulations 2015, by the time it requires it to be done.
3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial

Not determined

Maximum fine

Not determined

Maximum prison (summary)

Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

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.

• Firearms offences: definitive guideline Magistrates' courts and the Crown Court in England and Wales

  Covers possession, transfer and manufacture of prohibited weapons and ammunition, including the statutory minimum sentences.

• Reduction in sentence for a guilty plea: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 June 2017

  The sliding scale of credit for pleading guilty, from one third at the first stage of proceedings downwards.

• General guideline: overarching principles All courts in England and Wales · in force from 1 October 2019

  The guideline a court uses when there is no offence-specific guideline, which is the position for the overwhelming majority of offences created by statutory instrument. It sets out how culpability and harm are assessed from first principles.

• Totality: definitive guideline All courts in England and Wales

  How to sentence more than one offence at once so that the total is just and proportionate - frequently in point here, because regulatory prosecutions commonly charge several breaches of the same instrument.

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

23 March 2015

In force from

16 April 2015

Extent

E+W+S

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 amend the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 (“the Act”) and the Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004 (“the 2004 Order”) in order to complete the implementation in the United Kingdom of Directive 2008/51/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 21st May 2008 on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons (OJ No. L 179, 8.7.08, p5) which amends Directive 91/477/EEC of 18th June 1991. Regulation 2 of these Regulations amends section 39 of the Act (register of holders of shot gun and firearm certificates) to ensure that information about each firearm to which a firearm certificate or a shot gun certificate relates is recorded on a computerised register, along with details of persons who purchase, possess, acquire, sell or transfer such firearms. Section 39 is also amended to ensure that such records are maintained for at least twenty years from the date that this information is entered onto the register and the heading is amended to reflect the new provisions. Regulation 3 of these Regulations amends Articles 30 and 38 of and Schedules 3 and 5 to the 2004 Order as follows: (a) Article 30(1) (consequences of expiration or revocation of firearms dealer’s certificate) is amended to ensure that once a firearms dealer’s certificate has expired or is revoked, he must deliver his record of transactions (register) to the national authority responsible for the electronic filing system, which, in Northern Ireland, is the Chief Constable; (b) Article 38 (record of transactions in firearms) is extended to ensure that firearms dealers provide a copy of each transaction involving a firearm to the Chief Constable in a timely manner; (c) Article 38A (record of transactions in firearms by Chief Constable) is inserted to ensure that the Chief Constable is responsible for keeping a centralised electronic data-filing system for at least 20 years; (d) Schedule 3 is amended to ensure that firearms dealers record adequate information about each transaction involving a firearm to provide to the Chief Constable; and (e) Article 38(6A) is inserted and Schedule 5 is amended to make it an offence for a firearms dealer to fail to send a copy of their record of each transaction involving a firearm to the Chief Constable within 72 hours of the transaction.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

• and c send a copy of the record of each transaction involving a firearm within 72 hours of the transaction…regulation 3(3)

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

• This provision on legislation.gov.uk The authoritative text. Check it before relying on anything here.
• The Firearms Regulations 2015 Every offence this instrument creates, and its explanatory note
• Firearms, offensive weapons, explosives and poisonsOther offences on the same subject
• Offences created in 2015