UK Offence Report

Rejection of postal voting documents handed in to the returning officer

article 15C(4) of The Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 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

4 The returning officer may reject

a postal voting document handed in by P where the returning officer knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that, in handing in the document, P commits an offence under section 112A of the 1983 Act.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 returning officer
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Objective fault
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened and that it fell below the standard the provision sets. That is an objective test - what a reasonable person in the same position would have done, not what this defendant actually thought.

What an returning officer personally believed or intended is not the question; the standard is what was reasonable.

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

Classifier’s reasoning: objective standard in the offence-creating words: reasonable cause to suspect.

What would breach article 15C(4)?

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 Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 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
13 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 Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes changes to the rules governing the handing in of postal voting documents for local elections in Northern Ireland. Similar changes are made to the rules governing Parliamentary and Assembly elections in a separate instrument (the Representation of the People (Postal Vote Handling etc.) (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2024) (S.I. 2024/319). Part 2 of this Order amends Schedule 2 to the Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 (“the 1985 Order”) (S.I. 1985/454) to set out new procedures which will apply to the handing in of postal voting documents to the returning officer for local elections in Northern Ireland. 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 conditions apply. The amendments made by Part 2 also make provision in relation to postal voting documents which are brought into the offices of the returning officer but are left behind without being handed in. Additionally, they replace the statement as to postal ballot papers in the Appendix to Schedule 2 to the 1985 Order. Part 3 of this Order amends other electoral legislation relating to local elections in Northern Ireland. Article 9 amends rule 45(2) in Schedule 5 to the Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962 (c. 14) (N.I.) to clarify that postal voting documents may be returned by post or by hand and to provide that rejection under the procedures mentioned above has the effect that the postal ballot papers affected are not duly returned. Article 9 also amends Schedule 5 to that Act to replace the following forms used in local elections: declaration of identity, elector’s official postal poll card and proxy’s official postal poll card. Article 10 amends the Elections Act 2001 (c. 7) to replace form 5A (declaration of identity (combined polls)), which is inserted by paragraph 29(2) of Schedule 1 to that Act into the Appendix of Forms in Schedule 5 to the Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962 for the purposes of a combined local and parliamentary election. Article 11 amends the Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/2977) to ensure that lists of electors whose postal voting documents have been rejected under the new procedures or left behind are not available for public inspection. 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

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits an offence”; c10_offence_under_parent_act
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