UK Offence Report

Renewal declarations

regulation 22B(2) of The Representation of the People (Overseas Electors 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

2 The Electoral Commission must— a design a paper renewal declaration form which— i requires the information required by paragraph (1) and by section 1E(1) and (2) of the 1985 Act, ii includes a statement that it is an offence to provide false information to the registration officer, together with a statement of the maximum penalty for that offence, and iii includes space for the email address and telephone number of the declarant and an explanation that provision of this information is not mandatory, b seek the approval of the Secretary of State to the design of that form, and c having obtained that approval, make the form available to registration officers.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 registration 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 registration 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 22B(2)?

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 Representation of the People (Overseas Electors etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.
  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
18 December 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 expansion of the franchise for parliamentary elections in respect of British citizens overseas by sections 1 to 1E of the Representation of the People Act 1985 (c. 50), as substituted by section 14 of the Elections Act 2022 (c. 37). These Regulations also make provision related to the change to be made to the franchise for local government electors in England by section 15 of the Elections Act 2022 (voting and candidacy rights of EU citizens) and provision related to absent voting arrangements at police and crime commissioner elections in Wales. Part 2 of these Regulations makes provision related to the expansion of the franchise for parliamentary elections in respect of British citizens overseas. Chapter 1 of Part 2 makes amendments to the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/341) (“the 2001 Regulations”) to reflect the new qualification conditions for registration as an overseas elector and in consequence of the franchise expansion. New regulation 18 of the 2001 Regulations (inserted by regulation 4(2)) prescribes additional requirements for an overseas elector’s declaration. New regulation 22A of the 2001 Regulations (inserted by regulation 4(6)) requires a registration officer to send reminders to a registered overseas elector prior to the expiry of their registration entitlement. New regulations 22B to 22D of the 2001 Regulations (also inserted by regulation 4(6)) make provision related to the content and manner of making of renewal declarations. New regulation 25ZA of the 2001 Regulations (inserted by regulation 5(5)) requires a registration officer to send a reminder to a registered overseas elector ahead of the expiry of their anonymous registration. Regulation 5(8) makes amendments to regulation 26B of the 2001 Regulations as to the types of additional evidence which can be requested by a registration officer from a person applying to be registered as an overseas elector where further evidence is required to establish the identity of the applicant. Regulation 5(9) inserts new regulations 26C to 26J of the 2001 Regulations, which provide a registration officer with the powers to seek additional evidence from a person applying to be registered as an overseas elector where further evidence is required to establish that the person meets the new qualifications for registration as an overseas elector, as set out in section 1A of the Representation of the People Act 1985. New regulations 29ZAA and 29ZAB of the 2001 Regulations (as inserted by regulation 5(11)) allow for the verification of information provided in an application for registration as an overseas elector against data held by the Department for Work and Pensions. The amendments made by regulation 5(18) and (19) clarify that a registration officer’s powers under regulations 35 and 35A of the 2001 Regulations in relation to local records do not apply for the purpose of verifying information related to an applicant for an absent voting arrangement for parliamentary elections or for local government elections in England. The amendments made by regulation 5(21) to regulation 45 of the 2001 Regulations provide for anonymous entries to be made on the list of overseas electors and for that list to be maintained. Regulation 6 makes amendments to Part 4 of the 2001 Regulations (absent voters) to require a registration officer to include, as part of a confirmation sent to a registered overseas elector who has successfully applied to appoint a proxy for a period of time longer than the elector’s entitlement to remain registered, a reminder that a fresh signature will be required prior to the end of their entitlement, and providing that the registration officer then requires that fresh signature. Chapter 2 of Part 2 makes equivalent amendments to the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/497) to those made to the 2001 Regulations by Chapter 1 of Part 2. Chapter 3 of Part 2 makes additional consequential amendments to other legislation relating to elections and recall petitions under the Recall of MPs Act 2015 (c. 25). Part 3 of these Regulations makes provision related to the change to be made to the franchise for local government electors in England by section 15 of the Elections Act 2022 (voting and candidacy rights of EU citizens). Regulation 15 makes additional amendments to provisions of the 2001 Regulations amended in Chapter 1 of Part 2 of these Regulations. Regulation 16 amends the Representations of the People (Franchise Amendment and Eligibility Review) Regulations 2023 to prevent the duplication of notices to relevant persons following the outcome of the review of registration entitlement provided for in Chapter 2 of Part 2 of those Regulations. Regulation 17 makes transitional provision so that a person who was entitled to stand as a candidate in a local government election, mayoral election or combined authority mayoral election prior to 7th May 2024 remains qualified to stand as a candidate in such an election that is re-run after 7th May 2024 as a result of section 39 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, despite the changes to qualification to be made by paragraphs 3 to 5 of Schedule 8 to the Elections Act 2022. Regulation 18 makes transitional provision similar to that made by paragraph 12 of Schedule 8 to the Elections Act 2022, to the effect that a person who is elected following a re-run election to which regulation 17 applies remains qualified to hold that office until the end of the term of office following that election. Part 4 amends the Representation of the People (Postal and Proxy Voting etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 to provide that a person is not automatically entitled to vote by post or proxy at a police and crime commissioner election in Wales by virtue of an equivalent entitlement to vote by post or proxy that only applies in respect of local government elections. Schedule 2 contains transitional and savings provisions related to the expansion of the franchise for parliamentary elections in respect of British citizens overseas. A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector and community bodies 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 0.90.

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