UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Public Service Vehicles (International Passenger Services) Regulations (Northern Ireland)…

regulation 7(8) of The Road Transport (International Passenger Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2024

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

8 For regulation 16(1) (offences), substitute—

1 A person is guilty of an offence if that person breaches

a provision of—

a Interbus set out in Schedule 2;

b the RSR Protocol set out in Schedule 3; or

c the RPT Chapter set out in Schedule 4. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 regulation 7(8)?

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 an offence is committed where a person breaches a provision of— a Interbus set out in Schedule 2.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Road Transport (International Passenger Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

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 2024
In force from
1 April 2025
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 implement the Protocol to Interbus regarding the international regular and special regular carriage of passengers by coach and bus (“the RSR Protocol”), which extended the Agreement on the international occasional carriage of passengers by coach and bus (Interbus Agreement) concluded in Brussels on 30th June 2001 (“the Interbus Agreement”), acceded to by the United Kingdom in October 2020. These Regulations also amend existing legislation to implement the road traffic passenger transport chapter of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union (“the RPT Chapter”). Part 2 makes amendments in relation to Great Britain. In particular: a regulation 3 amends the Road Transport (International Passenger Services) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/1395) to: insert a new regulation 3A, which provides that the RPT Chapter, the Interbus Agreement and the RSR Protocol, as they have effect on 1st April 2025, form part of domestic law on and after that date (regulation 3(3)); provide that the competent authority for certain purposes is the Secretary of State and for other purposes is the Confederation of Passenger Transport (regulation 3(4)); insert new Schedules 3 and 4 which provide for offences for breach of provisions of the RSR Protocol and the RPT Chapter (regulation 3(12) and Schedule 1); b regulation 4 amends Schedule 1 to the Road Traffic (Foreign Vehicles) Act 1972 (c. 27) (provisions conferring functions on examiners) and Schedule 2 to that Act (provisions relating to vehicles and their drivers); c regulations 5 and 6 make consequential amendments to the Motor Vehicles (International Circulation) Order 1975 (S.I. 1975/1208) and the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 (c. 14). Part 3 makes amendments in relation to Northern Ireland. In particular: a regulation 7 amends the Public Service Vehicles (International Passenger Services) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019 (S.R. 2019 No. 27) to: insert a new regulation 2A, which provides that the RPT Chapter, the Interbus Agreement and the RSR Protocol, as they have effect on 1st April 2025, form part of the law of Northern Ireland on and after that date (regulation 7(3)); insert new Schedules 3 and 4 which provide for offences for breach of provisions of the RSR Protocol and the RPT Chapter (regulation 7(11) and Schedule 2); b regulation 8 amends sections 34(a) (forgery of licences), 35(f) (false statements) and 81(1) (interpretation) of the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 (c. 37 (N.I.)); c regulation 9 makes consequential amendments to Schedule 1 (statutory provisions conferring functions on authorised officers) and Schedule 2 (statutory provisions relating to vehicles and their drivers) to the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (S.I. 1981/154 (N.I.1)). Part 4 contains further consequential provisions. A full impact assessment has not been prepared for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum has been prepared for this instrument and is available alongside this instrument on the UK legislation website: 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.

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 is “guilty of 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