UK Offence Report

Offences relating to disclosure of information held by Revenue and Customs

regulation 29A(1) of The Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (Amendment) 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

1 It is an offence for

a person to contravene regulation 7A(3) if the disclosed information relates to

a person whose identity—

a is specified in the disclosure, or

b can be deduced from it.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
contravening a requirement of the instrument
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 29A(1)?

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 contravene regulation 7A(3) if the disclosed information relates to a person whose identity— a is specified in the disclosure, or b can be deduced from it.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (Amendment) Regulations 2018, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

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
26 January 2018
In force from
Not determined
Extent
N.I.

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 Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/310) (“the 2015 Regulations”). They update the 2015 Regulations to include references to the following Commission Implementing Regulations adopted since the 2015 Regulations came into force— a Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/2065 (OJ No L 301, 18.11.2015, p 14); b Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/2066 (OJ No L 301, 18.11.2015, p 22); c Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/2067 (OJ No L 301, 18.11.2015, p 28); d Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/2068 (OJ No L 301, 18.11.2015, p 39); e Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2016/879 (OJ No L 146, 3.6.2016, p 1). The Regulations also make provision for the appointment of certification, evaluation and attestation bodies by the Secretary of State, the disclosure of information on enforcement by HM Revenue & Customs to certain enforcing authorities and for the introduction of civil penalties in England, Scotland and for offshore installations. An assessment of the effects that this instrument will have on the costs of business is available from the Stratospheric Ozone and Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Team, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, Area 2A, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR and is annexed to the Government’s response to the consultation on www.gov.uk/government/consultations.

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 →

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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