UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Russia (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2020

article 36 of The Russia (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 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

3 A person who commits an offence under any provision of Part 3 (Finance) or regulation 57 (Crimean ports direction or Donetsk ports direction), 57A (prohibition on port entry), 57B(4) (directions prohibiting port entry), 57C(3) (movement of ships), 57N(1) to (4) (aircraft offences) or 67 (finance: licensing offences) is liable—

a on summary conviction, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

6 months, or

a fine not exceeding £5,000 or its equivalent in the currency of the Territory, or both;

b on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for

a term not exceeding

7 years, or

a fine, or both.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 article 36?

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 what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Russia (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 2022.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
£5,000
Maximum prison (summary)
6 months
Maximum prison (on indictment)
2 years

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
13 April 2022
In force from
14 April 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes amendments to the Russia (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2020 (S.I. 2020/1571) (“the principal Order”). The principal Order extends with modifications the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/855) (“the Russia sanctions regulations”) as amended from time to time to all British overseas territories except Bermuda and Gibraltar (which implement sanctions under their own legislative arrangements). The Russia sanctions regulations established a sanctions regime in relation to Russia for the purpose of encouraging Russia to cease actions destabilising Ukraine or undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine. The Russia sanctions regulations have been recently amended by the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/194), the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/195), the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/203), the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/205), the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 6) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/241) and the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 7) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/395) (together “the amending regulations”). This Order makes the necessary amendments to the principal Order to give effect in the relevant British overseas territories to the changes made to the Russia sanctions regime by the amending regulations. An Impact Assessment has not been prepared for this Order: the territorial extent of both this Order and the principal Order which it amends is the British overseas territories listed in the Schedule to this Order and no, or no significant, impact is foreseen on the private, voluntary or public sector in the United Kingdom.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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