UK Offence Report

Offences and penalties

regulation 19(1) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021 (revoked)

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 A person (“P”) commits an offence where—

a without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in regulation 3 (requirement to provide information);

b without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in regulation 4 (requirement to possess notification of negative test result);

c without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in regulation 6 (requirement to book and undertake tests);

d without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in regulation 7 (requirement to undertake workforce tests);

e without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in regulation 8 (requirement for offshore installation workers to take tests);

f P contravenes

a requirement in regulation 9 (requirement to self-isolate);

g without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in or imposed under regulation 11 (enforcement of requirement to self-isolate) apart from paragraph (2) of that regulation;

h without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in or imposed under regulation 11(2);

i without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in paragraph

5 or 16(a), so far is it relates to paragraph 5, of Schedule 11 (requirement to possess managed self-isolation package);

j P contravenes any other requirement in Schedule 11 (except paragraph 15); or

k without reasonable excuse P contravenes

a requirement in paragraph

4 of Schedule 9 (employers’ obligations relating to workforce tests).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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

1 A person (“P”) commits an offence where— a without reasonable excuse P contravenes a requirement in regulation 3 (requirement to provide information); b without reasonable excuse P contravenes a requirement in regulation 4 (requirement to possess notification of negative test result); c without reasonable excuse P contravenes

What would breach regulation 19(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. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021, whatever the reason for doing it.
  2. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
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
14 May 2021
In force from
17 May 2021
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 replace the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 (“the International Travel Regulations”), the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Public Health Information for International Passengers) (England) Regulations 2020 and the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Pre-Departure Testing and Operator Liability) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021. They impose requirements on certain categories of person to provide information upon arrival in England, to take coronavirus tests before and after arrival and to self-isolate in order to prevent the spread of infection or contamination from coronavirus or coronavirus disease. They also impose obligations on operators to ensure that passengers receive information and comply with the requirements. 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 →

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