UK Offence Report

Aircraft: licensing offences

regulation 34 of The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 7) Regulations 2022

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

34 After regulation 68 (trade: licensing offences), insert— Aircraft: licensing offences 68A

1 A person (“P”) commits an offence if P knowingly or recklessly—

a provides information that is false in

a material respect, or

b provides or produces

a document that is not what it purports to be, for the purpose of obtaining an aircraft licence (whether for P or anyone else).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (for the purpose of obtaining, knowingly, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, recklessly, for the purpose of obtaining, knowingly or recklessly.

What would breach regulation 34?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 7) Regulations 2022.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

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
29 March 2022
In force from
30 March 2022
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 are made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (c. 13) to amend the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/855) (“the 2019 Regulations”). The Regulations extend the existing finance, shipping and trade sanctions relating to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and city of Sevastopol (“Crimea”) to the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk oblast and Luhansk oblast of Ukraine (“non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts”). These areas are defined by reference to Decree Number 32/2019 issued by the President of Ukraine on 7th February 2019 under the Law of Ukraine of 18th January 2018 Nr. 2268-VIII “On the Peculiarities of State Policy on Ensuring the State Sovereignty of Ukraine over Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts”. The Regulations also extend the relevant exceptions and licensing provisions to the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The cut-off date for the exception in paragraph (1) of regulation 60 (exceptions relating to investments in relation to non-government controlled Ukrainian territory) permitting the satisfaction of obligations arising under a prior contract remains 20th December 2014 for contracts in relation to Crimea and, for contracts in relation to non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, is 23rd February 2022. The Regulations confer a power on the Secretary of State to provide that persons of a specified description are designated persons. As with persons designated by name, persons designated by description may be excluded from the United Kingdom and may be made subject to financial sanctions, including having their funds or economic resources frozen, or to shipping or aircraft sanctions. The Regulations prohibit the provision to, or for the benefit of, a designated person of technical assistance relating to aircraft and ships. This includes a power to designate persons for the purposes of that sanctions measure, as well as relevant exceptions and licensing provisions. The Regulations amend regulation 19 (circumventing etc. prohibitions) of the 2019 Regulations to include within the scope of those prohibitions regulation 18A (provision of financial services relating to foreign exchange reserve and asset management). In addition, the Regulations make provision to correct an omission from the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/194), namely to provide for Part A1 (Interpretation) of Schedule 5 (Treasury licences: purposes) to have effect. The Regulations also make provision to correct or resolve a number of issues arising from the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 6) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/241): first, to remove the Secretary of State’s power to issue directions under regulation 57J(8) (movement of aircraft) and instead replace it with a power to issue a licence to authorise a movement of aircraft that would otherwise be prohibited; second, to ensure the effective resolution of conflicts between provisions of the Air Navigation Order 2016 and any direction under regulation 57J(9)(c) or (d) to suspend, rather than just revoke a permission; third, to ensure that regulation 63(1) (exception for acts done for purposes of national security or prevention of serious crime) applies to prohibitions in and under Part 6A (Aircraft); and fourth to amend regulation 80 (penalties for offences) to ensure that each offence in Part 6 (Ships) and Part 6A (Aircraft) may be enforced through the appropriate level of penalties. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. Instead a de minimis assessment has been prepared as this instrument is likely to entail some costs for businesses, but the net impact is estimated to be below £5 million per year.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

Both Houses had to approve this instrument before it could take effect, and did so.

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 →

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