UK Offence Report

Return of postal voting documents form: prescribed information

regulation 84B(1) of The Representation of the People (Postal Vote Handling etc.) (Northern Ireland) (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

1 For the purposes of regulation 84A(2), the prescribed information is— a P’s name and address; b the total number of covering envelopes that P is handing in; c whether P is handing in postal voting documents issued to P as an elector; d whether P is handing in postal voting documents issued to P as a proxy, and if so for how many electors; e whether P is handing in postal voting documents which were not issued to P, and if so for how many electors and why; f a declaration by P that— i the number of electors for whom P has handed in postal voting documents for the election concerned, including those postal voting documents being handed in at that time, but excluding those issued to P and those rejected in accordance with regulation 84C on a previous occasion, does not exceed the permitted number (see further, regulation 84C), and ii either— aa to the best of P’s knowledge, P is not a political campaigner for whom it is an offence under section 112A of the 1983 Act (offences relating to handling of postal voting documents) to handle the postal voting documents concerned, or bb P is a political campaigner and is only handing in postal voting documents for one or more persons mentioned in paragraph (2).

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
Mixed — some elements strict, some not
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove the conduct, and - for those elements the provision qualifies - the state of mind it names. The remaining elements carry no fault requirement, so they are strict.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: the offence itself carries no fault word, but a duty it criminalises by cross-reference uses reasonable cause to suspect; which element that governs was not determined.

What would breach regulation 84B(1)?

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 Vote Handling etc.) (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 112A of the 1983 Act.

penalty is that of the referenced enactment; not stated in this instrument.

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
5 March 2024
In force from
Not determined
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 Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations amend subordinate legislation in consequence of provisions contained in the Elections Act 2022 (c. 37) (“the Act”). The amendments made by these Regulations principally concern the handing in of postal voting documents for Parliamentary and Assembly elections (see section 5 of the Act). Similar provision for local elections is made in the Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 2024 (S.I. 2024/XXX). The Regulations also make amendments and transitional provisions relating to the voting and candidacy right of EU citizens (see section 15 of, and Schedule 8 to, the Act). These latter provisions are supplementary to the amendments made in the Representation of the People (Franchise Amendment and Eligibility Review) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1176). Part 2 of these Regulations amends the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/1741) to set out new procedures which will apply to the handing in of postal voting documents to the returning officer for UK Parliamentary elections. The Representation of the People (Postal Vote Handling and Secrecy) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1225) makes similar amendments in respect of parliamentary elections in Great Britain. Under the amendments being made, persons seeking to hand in postal voting documents to the returning officer will be required to complete a return of postal voting documents form, and their postal voting documents must or may be rejected by the returning officer if certain criteria are met. The effect of rejection is that such documents are not duly returned for the purposes of rule 45(2) of Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2). Part 2 also makes provision for postal voting documents which are brought into the offices of the returning officer but are left behind without being handed in. Additionally, Part 2 of these Regulations updates prescribed forms for use at Parliamentary elections as a consequence of these new procedures (regulation 10 and Schedules 1 to 5). Part 3 of these Regulations amends the Northern Ireland Assembly (Elections) Order 2001 (“the 2001 Order”) (S.I. 2001/2599) so that the same procedures will apply to Assembly elections in Northern Ireland. Regulation 12 amends Schedule 1 to the 2001 Order, which lists the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1983 to be applied with modifications by virtue of article 3(1) of the 2001 Order. Regulation 13 amends Schedule 2 to the 2001 Order, which lists the provisions of the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008 to be applied with modifications by virtue of article 3(1) of the 2001 Order. Part 3 also updates the declaration of identity forms for use at Assembly elections (regulation 13(6) and Schedule 6). Part 4 of these Regulations makes provision related to the changes to the voting and candidacy rights of EU citizens set out in Schedule 8 to the Act. Regulation 14 makes a minor consequential amendment to the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008. Regulation 15 amends the Representations of the People (Franchise Amendment and Eligibility Review) (Northern Ireland) 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 16 makes transitional provision so that a person who was entitled to stand as a candidate in a local election or Assembly election prior to 7th May 2024 remains qualified to stand as a candidate in such an election where that election is re-run on or after 7th May 2024, despite the changes made by Part 3 of Schedule 8 to the Elections Act 2022. Regulation 17 makes transitional provision to the effect that a person who is elected following a re-run Assembly election remains qualified to hold that office until the end of the term of office following that election. Equivalent provision is not required for local elections. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

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