UK Offence Report

Duty to notify the United Kingdom Health Security Agency of the results of lateral flow device tests…

regulation 4B(6) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) (Amendment) (No. 16) Regulations 2021

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

6 It is an offence for

a test provider to fail without reasonable excuse to comply with this regulation.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

6 It is an offence for a test provider to fail without reasonable excuse to comply with this regulation.

What would breach regulation 4B(6)?

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 fail without reasonable excuse to comply with this regulation.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) (Amendment) (No. 16) Regulations 2021.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

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
22 October 2021
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations amend, primarily, the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021 (S.I. 2021/582) (“the International Travel Regulations”). The amendments introduce lateral flow device (“LFD”) tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 as an alternative to existing requirements on arrivals deemed to be “eligible travellers” to undertake day 2 polymerase chain reaction tests. Regulations 4, 5 and 10 amend regulations 3J and 3K of, and Schedule 8 to, the International Travel Regulations to provide for the use of LFD tests, and the consequences of the results of those tests. Regulation 6 and 7 amend regulations 18A and 18B of the International Travel Regulations to impose requirements on test providers and on others providing testing services in relation to LFD testing. Regulations 8 and 12 amend regulation 19 of, and Schedule 14 to, the International Travel Regulations to provide for updated offences and fixed monetary penalties in connection with the LFD test obligations. These Regulations make further minor and consequential amendments to the International Travel Regulations. Regulation 13 amends the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/659) (“the Notification Regulations”) to insert new regulation 4B, which imposes an obligation to notify the United Kingdom Health Security Agency of certain information in relation to LFD tests. Regulation 13 makes further minor and consequential amendments to the Notification Regulations. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument. An explanatory memorandum has been published alongside this instrument at 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 0.90.

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