UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Wireless Telegraphy (Mobile Communication Services on Aircraft) (Exemption) Regulations…

the instrument as a whole of The Wireless Telegraphy (Mobile Communication Services on Aircraft) (Exemption) Regulations 2017

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

Contravening this instrument is an offence under sections 35 and 36 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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

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.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

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 Wireless Telegraphy (Mobile Communication Services on Aircraft) (Exemption) Regulations 2017.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to sections 35 and 36 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

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.

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 May 2017
In force from
15 June 2017
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 give effect to EU obligations of the United Kingdom contained in the Commission Implementing Decision 2016/2317/EU of 16th December 2016 amending Decision 2008/294/EC and Implementing Decision 2013/654/EU to simplify the operation of mobile communications on board aircraft (MCA services) in the Union (OJEU No L 345, 20.12.2016, p 67). These Regulations revoke the Wireless Telegraphy (Mobile Communications Services on Aircraft) (Exemption) Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/953). These Regulations exempt the use of any wireless telegraphy apparatus which complies with certain terms, provisions and limitations, from the requirement to be licensed under section 8(1) of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 (c.36). The apparatus must be on board an aircraft which is registered in the British Islands and the exemption applies when the aircraft is flying over the British Islands and the territorial waters adjacent thereto, or, for the time being, beyond the British Islands and the territorial waters adjacent thereto (regulation 4). The terms, provisions and limitations for the exemption to apply are set out in regulation 5. These include the requirement that apparatus complies with specified standards published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (“ETSI”) (regulation 5(1)). The apparatus must only operate in the 1800 MHz band or the 2100 MHz band (regulation 5(3)). The apparatus must only be used for mobile communication services on aircraft, when the aircraft is three thousand metres or more above the ground, where specified operational requirements are met and when it does not emanate outside the aircraft specified values for the equivalent isotropic radiated power (e.i.r.p.)(regulation 5(4)). The apparatus must not cause or contribute to any undue interference to any wireless telegraphy (regulation 5(5)). Finally, the apparatus must connect to a relevant network that complies with further technical requirements set out in regulation 5(7). Some of these requirements relate to the base transceiver station to which the apparatus is connected (in the case of UMTS and LTE systems, the base transceiver station is commonly known as “Node B”). The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) publishes a list of the most recent and relevant versions of the ETSI standards referred to in the Regulations. That list is available to the public from the official website of the European Union at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/oj/direct-access.html or from the EU Bookshop (as managed by the Publications Office of the European Union) by emailing: bookshop@publications.europa.eu, or from the Publications Office of the European Union at 2 rue Mercier, 2985 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. The ETSI standards themselves are available to the public from ETSI on their website at http://www.etsi.org or from the ETSI Secretariat at 650 Route des Lucioles, 06921 Sophia-Antipolis CEDEX, France (Tel: +33 4 92 94 42 00). A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs to business is available to the public from OFCOM’s website at http://www.ofcom.org.uk or from the OFCOM Library at Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA. Copies of this assessment have also been placed in the library of the House of Commons.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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 0.50.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.50 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