UK Offence Report

The Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016

regulation 19(16) of The Representation of the People (Postal and Proxy Voting etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

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

16 In regulation 119 (other signing offences)— a after paragraph (1) insert— 1A A person (“P”) is guilty of an offence if P applies for the appointment of a proxy to sign a petition for P— a where P knows that the person to be appointed is already appointed as proxy to sign that petition for four or more other persons; b where— i P is or will be registered in the register otherwise than in pursuance of an overseas electors declaration or as a service voter; and ii P knows that the person to be appointed is already appointed as proxy to sign that petition, or petitions, for two or more other persons none of whom is registered in the register in pursuance of an overseas elector’s declaration or as a service voter; c where P knows that the person to be appointed is already appointed as proxy to sign a petition or petitions for four or more other persons; d where— i P is or will be registered in the register otherwise than in pursuance of an overseas electors declaration or as a service voter; and ii P knows that the person to be appointed is already appointed to sign a petition or petitions, for two or more other persons none of whom is registered in the register in pursuance of an overseas elector’s declaration or as a service voter. ; b for paragraph (4) substitute— 4 A person (“P”) is guilty of an offence if P signs a petition as proxy— a for more than four persons, or b for more than two persons where P knows that more than two of those persons are registered in the register otherwise than in pursuance of an overseas elector’s declaration or as a service voter. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
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 (knows that).

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: knows that.

What would breach regulation 19(16)?

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 Representation of the People (Postal and Proxy Voting etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Either way — magistrates’ court or Crown Court
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
1 year
Maximum prison (on indictment)
1 year

'to a fine' with no stated maximum; imprisonment expressed as the general limit in a magistrates' court (Sentencing Act 2020 s.224(1A)); 12 months as at the latest change. Note the limit is keyed to the date of conviction, while the standard scale is keyed to the date of the offence, so a single date is an approximation here; imprisonment expressed as the general limit in a magistrates' court (Sentencing Act 2020 s.224(1A)); 12 months as at the latest change. Note the limit is keyed to the date of conviction, while the standard scale is keyed to the date of the offence, so a single date is an approximation here.

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
25 October 2023
In force from
Not determined
Extent
E+W+S

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 make provision related to the implementation of section 3 (restriction of period for which person can apply for a postal vote) and section 6 (limit on the number of electors for whom a proxy can vote) of the Elections Act 2022 (c. 37) (“EA 2022”), as well as amending provisions related to the processing of applications for electoral registration under section 10ZC of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) (“the 1983 Act”). Part 2 of these Regulations makes amendments to the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulation 2001 (S.I. 2001/341) (“the 2001 Regulations”). Regulation 4 amends Part 3 of the 2001 Regulations to update provisions regarding how electoral registration applications submitted online via the digital service and the information contained within them are processed. Regulation 5 amends Part 4 of the 2001 Regulations, providing for the online submission of relevant absent voting applications (see paragraph 1A(7)(a)(i) of Schedule 2 to the 1983 Act), as well as the verification of information provided in such applications (whether or not submitted online) and the power for registration officers to request further evidence from applicants in order to verify the applicant’s identity. The amendments to Part 4 of the 2001 Regulations also provide for additional notifications to be sent by registration officers where an application for postal ballot papers to be sent to different address is granted, refused or disregarded for the purposes of a particular election. Regulation 6 replaces the prescribed form of the official poll card and official proxy poll card used in respect of parliamentary elections in England and Wales, as well as the prescribed form of the proxy paper. Part 3 of these Regulations makes equivalent amendments to the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/497) to those made by Part 2 of these Regulations. Regulations 12 and 13 make amendments to regulation 98 of the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 1986 (S.I. 1986/1111) and Schedule 2 to the Representation of the People (Combination of Polls) (England and Wales) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/294) (which modify the parliamentary elections rules set out in Schedule 1 to the 1983 Act where the poll for a UK parliamentary election is combined with one or more other polls in Scotland and England and Wales respectively) as a result of the amendments made to the statutory questions in rule 35 of the parliamentary election rules by paragraph 4 of Schedule 4 to EA 2022. Regulations 14 to 20 amend various instruments to make equivalent amendments to election, referendum and recall petition rules to those made to the UK parliamentary election rules in Schedule 1 to the 1983 Act by paragraph 4 of Schedule 4 to EA 2022 and to update the prescribed form of equivalent poll cards and proxy poll cards. Additionally, in relation to Police and Crime Commissioner elections and recall petitions, regulations 17 and 19 makes equivalent amendments to those made by Parts 2 and 3 of these Regulations for the online submission of absent voting or absent signing applications and associated verification procedures and powers. Regulation 21 updates the Welsh language version of the statutory questions for proxies, and the Welsh and English versions of the poll card and proxy poll card, for use in relation to police and crime commissioner elections in Wales. Regulation 22 amends the Voter Identification Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/1382) to update provisions regarding how identity document applications submitted online via the digital service and the information contained within them are processed, as well as applying a similar limit on potential attestors to an applicant’s identity as are provided for in relation to relevant absent voting applications. Schedule 2 contains transitional and savings provisions related to the amendments made by the EA 2022 and these Regulations to the rules governing elections, referendums and recall petitions. A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of businesses, the voluntary sector and the public sector is available from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities at 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF and published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

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 0.96.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.96 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