UK Offence Report

Procedure for reviewing entitlement to registration – correspondence-based review

regulation 7(3) of The Representation of the People (Franchise Amendment and Eligibility Review) (Northern Ireland) 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

3 A first review notice must—

a explain that the criteria under section 4(3) to (6) of the 1983 Act by which

a citizen of

a member State is eligible to be registered in the register of local electors have changed,

b state that the Chief Electoral Officer is not satisfied that the relevant person remains entitled to be registered, and the grounds for the Chief Electoral Officer’s opinion,

c specify any further information relating to whether that person satisfies the revised registration criteria that the Chief Electoral Officer requests the relevant person to provide,

d provide information on how the relevant person may respond to the request for information, and

e state that it is an offence to provide false information to the Chief Electoral Officer, and the maximum penalty for that 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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 chief electoral officer
Conduct
making a false or misleading statement
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 chief electoral officer 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 7(3)?

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 it is an offence to provide false information to the Chief Electoral Officer, and the maximum penalty for that offence.
  2. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Representation of the People (Franchise Amendment and Eligibility Review) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2023.
  3. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  4. 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 in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

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
30 October 2023
In force from
Not determined
Extent
N.I.

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 change in franchise for citizens of the European Union for local government elections in Northern Ireland. Part 2 provides, at Chapter 2, a process for the review of the entitlement of citizens of member States of the European Union to remain registered on the register of local electors in Northern Ireland following the change in registration criteria in section 4 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2). Part 3 provides for a revised date by which the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland must publish under section 13 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 revised versions of the Officer’s electoral registers for 2024. Part 4 makes amendments to the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1741) regarding the content of applications for registration on the register of local electors in Northern Ireland, and the marking of certain entries in registers to indicate that an EU citizen is registered only in the register of local electors. A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument, and the corresponding instrument for local and Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England, will have on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector is available from the Department for 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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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