UK Offence Report

The Representation of the People Act 1983

paragraph 1(15)(a) of SCHEDULE 2 of The Combined Authorities (Mayoral Elections) Order 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

a after subsection (2A) insert there were inserted— 2B In the case of

a combined authority mayoral election, paragraph (a) of subsection (2) above shall not have effect; but

a person shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection if he votes as an elector otherwise than by proxy more than once at the same combined authority mayoral election.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 paragraph 1(15)(a) of SCHEDULE 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 it is an offence to have effect; but a person shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection if he votes as an elector otherwise than by proxy more than once at the same combined authority mayoral election.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Combined Authorities (Mayoral Elections) Order 2017.

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.

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
30 January 2017
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.

Part 6 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (c. 20) makes provision for the establishment of combined authorities for two or more local government areas. That Act was amended by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 (c. 1) to provide for elected mayors for combined authorities. This Order makes provision for the conduct of elections for combined authority mayors. The Order is modelled on the Local Authorities (Mayoral Elections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/1024 as amended). Article 3 and Schedules 1 and 2 provide for the conduct of a combined authority mayoral election. The Combined Authority Mayoral Elections Rules as contained in Schedule 1 apply when the mayoral election is not combined with any other poll. Each candidate’s nomination paper must be subscribed by at least 100 electors (with at least 10 electors from each constituent council), and a deposit of £5000 must be paid. If there are three or more mayoral candidates, the elected mayor will be returned under the supplementary vote system, for which provision is made in paragraph 5 of Schedule 5B to the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. Article 3 and Schedule 2 also apply other electoral legislation, with modifications, to facilitate the conduct of combined authority mayoral elections. In particular, section 76 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 is modified so that the maximum amount that a candidate may spend in election expenses is £2,362 multiplied by the total number of constituent councils together with an additional 5.9p for every entry in the register of electors. Article 4 makes provision for the rules for the conduct of combined authority mayoral elections to be modified when combined with other polls. The rules for conducting such elections are set out in Schedule 3. Article 4 and Schedule 4 also amend the Representation of the People (Combination of Polls) (England and Wales) Regulations 2004 and other statutory instruments to enable polls to be taken together. Articles 5 and 6 provide for the appointment of returning officers for each local authority area that comprises the combined authority and for a combined authority returning officer with overall supervision. Article 7 provides for combined authority mayoral elections to be questioned using the same procedures (in Part 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 3)) that apply to the questioning of local authority elections and mayoral elections. Article 8 and Schedule 5 provide for the free delivery of election addresses. Candidates at mayoral elections who wish to have their election addresses included in the election booklet prepared and distributed by the returning officer are required to pay a contribution of such reasonable amount as the returning officer may determine towards the expenses incurred by the returning officer in printing the election booklet. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument because no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public 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.

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