UK Offence Report

Amendment of the International Travel Regulations

regulation 2(4) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) 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

4 After regulation 6(3) (offences and penalties), insert— 3A An operator (within the meaning given in regulation 4A) who contravenes regulation 4B(3) or 4C(3) commits an offence. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
an operator
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 an operator 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 2(4)?

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 an operator contravenes regulation 4B(3) or 4C(3).
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2021, 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
15 January 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 the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/568) (“the International Travel Regulations”) to prohibit the arrival in England of aircraft from Argentina, the Azores, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Madeira and Portugal. The arrival of vessels in England from the Azores, Madeira and Portugal is also prohibited. Concurrently, Chile, the Azores and Madeira are also removed from the list of exempt countries and territories in Schedule A1, from which passengers arriving in England are not required to self-isolate. The Regulations also add further countries and territories to the list, in Schedule B1, of countries and territories subject to enhanced measures. Those countries and territories are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Madeira, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Suriname, the Azores, Uruguay and Venezuela. The enhanced measures— a remove exemptions from the requirement to self-isolate and the requirement to complete a Passenger Locator Form for passengers who have arrived in England from these countries and territories or who have arrived in England from elsewhere and, during the 10 days preceding their arrival in England, have been in or transited through them; b exclude arrivals from these countries and territories and members of their household from the “Test to Release” regime; c require people residing with arrivals from these countries and territories to self-isolate. Note that the exemption has been retained for road hauliers who have at any time during the period beginning with the 10th day before the date of their arrival in England, departed from or transited through the Azores, Madeira and Portugal within 10 days of their arrival in England, unless they have travelled through another country listed in Schedule B1 within that time. The Regulations also remove Aruba, Qatar and Bonaire and Sint Eustatius & Saba from the list of exempt countries and territories in Schedule A1, from which passengers arriving in England are not required to self-isolate. This amendment takes effect 24 hours after the other provisions of the Regulations. An amendment has also been made to the exemption from the self-isolation requirements in Schedule 2 relating to ornamental horticulture to allows individuals engaged in seasonal work to self-isolate with other workers at the farm where they are engaged in that work. In addition, amendments have been made to the amount of fixed penalty payable by a person who commits an “information offence”. The penalty for the first offence is £500, increasing with subsequent offences up to a maximum of £4,000. No information offences committed before 4.00 a.m. on 18th January 2021 will be taken into account for determining the amount payable by a person who commits an information offence on or after that time and date. An information offence is an offence described in regulation 6(1)(a) or (3) of the International Travel Regulations, or regulation 6(2) of the International Travel Regulations where the person is believed to have wilfully obstructed any person carrying out a function in relation to regulation 3 of those 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 0.92.

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