UK Offence Report

Content of the package travel contract and other documents

regulation 7(12) of The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 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

12 Where the relevant person fails to comply with paragraph (2), (7) or (8), the organiser or, where the package travel contract is sold through a retailer, both the organiser and the retailer, commit an offence and are liable— a on summary conviction, to a fine in England and Wales, or in Scotland and Northern Ireland to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; b on conviction on indictment, to a fine.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 7(12)?

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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
24 May 2018
In force from
1 July 2018
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 implement Directive 2015/2302/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No. 2006/2004 and Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 90/314/EEC. These Regulations make provision in respect of package travel contracts and linked travel arrangements sold, or offered for sale, in the United Kingdom. The principal provisions of these Regulations are as follows. Part 2 of these Regulations specifies the information which the organiser of a package travel contract must provide to a traveller before the contract is concluded and how that information is to be provided. Part 2 also makes provision for the contents of the package travel contract. Where the package travel contract is sold through a retailer, the organiser and the retailer must both ensure that this information is provided. An organiser or a retailer who fails to comply with these provisions commits an offence. Part 3 of these Regulations makes provision for the circumstances in which the traveller may transfer the package travel contract to another traveller or may terminate the contract. It also describes the exceptional circumstances in which the price, or other contract terms, may be altered and the limited scenarios where the organiser may terminate the contract. Part 4 prescribes how the contract is to be performed and sets out when and how compensation may be offered to the traveller in cases where there is a lack of conformity in the performance of the contract. Part 5 makes provision in respect of the possible insolvency of the organiser. The organiser must ensure that effective security is in place by way of insurance, bonding or monies in trust. In the event of the organiser’s insolvency, such security must be able to cover the reasonably foreseeable costs of refunding all payments made by the traveller and, if the carriage of passengers is included in the package, of repatriating the traveller if necessary. Part 5 also requires traders who facilitate linked travel arrangements to ensure that travellers benefit from insolvency protection covering the refund of payments received from the travellers and, if that trader is responsible for the carriage of passengers, the cost of repatriation. The relevant trader must inform the traveller about that protection, and must also inform the traveller that the traveller will not benefit from other rights applying under these Regulations to package travel contracts. Part 6 of these Regulations makes general provision about the obligations of a retailer, where the organiser is established outside the European Economic Area. This Part also sets out the liability of the trader in respect of booking errors and the right of an organiser to seek redress from a third party. Part 7 deals with enforcement, prescribing the enforcement authorities and setting out a due diligence offence and a prosecution time limit. Part 8 revokes the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/3288), except in respect of contracts entered into prior to their revocation. Part 8 also makes amendments to primary and secondary legislation which are consequential upon the coming into force of these Regulations. Part 9 of these Regulations sets out a review provision. A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is also available alongside these Regulations on www.legislation.gov.uk. An Explanatory Memorandum and a transposition note are also available with these Regulations on www.legislation.gov.uk. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

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 “commits 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