UK Offence Report

Requirement for a person to give name and address

regulation 13(2) of The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018

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 Any person who fails to provide their name and address in accordance with paragraph (1) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

2 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 13(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 fails to provide their name and address in accordance with paragraph (1).
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018, 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
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£500
Standard scale
Level 2
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
12 March 2018
In force from
6 April 2018
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 make provision for the charging of penalty fares for the failure to produce, when required to do so, a ticket or other authority authorising a person to travel by train or to be present in a compulsory ticket area at a station. Part 1 of the Regulations makes provision in relation to the scope of the Regulations and defines terms used in the Regulations. Part 2 of the Regulations imposes a requirement to produce a ticket or other authority for travel or presence on a train or presence in a compulsory ticket area (regulation 4). Regulation 5 makes provision for the charging of penalty fares where a person fails to comply with the requirements in regulation 4 and regulations 6 and 7 set out circumstances in which a penalty fare must not be charged. Regulation 8 and Schedule 1 make provision for the notices which an operator must display in order to be able to charge penalty fares. Regulation 9 sets out the amount of the penalty fare that may be charged. Regulation 10 sets out the circumstances in which a collector may act and the requirement for collectors to carry identification. Regulation 11 prevents a person being liable to pay a penalty fare where proceedings for a criminal offence are brought in relation to the same matter. Regulation 12 provides the circumstances in which operators may recover penalty fares. Regulation 13 requires a person required to pay a penalty fare to provide their name and address if required to do so. Any person who fails to do so is guilty of an offence. Part 3 of the Regulations, together with Schedule 2, provides that an operator may only charge penalty fares if they have in place an appeals process that complies with these Regulations (regulation 14). Regulation 15 sets out the requirements that appeal panels must satisfy and regulations 16 to 18, together with Schedule 2, set out the processes and procedures that must be followed. Part 4 of the Regulations revokes the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 1994 and the Railways (Penalty Fares) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 (regulation 19). Regulation 20 makes provision for how penalty fares charged under the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 1994, and the persons who were authorised to collect penalty fares under those regulations, are to be treated for the purpose of this instrument. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum has been prepared for these Regulations and is available alongside this instrument on the UK Legislation website www.legislation.gov.uk.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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