UK Offence Report

Information offences

regulation 21(1) of The Trade, Aircraft and Shipping Sanctions (Civil Enforcement) 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 A person commits an offence, if that person—

a without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified (or, if no time has been specified, within

a reasonable time) to comply with any request under regulations

17 to 19;

b knowingly or recklessly gives any information, or produces any document, which is false in

a material particular in response to such

a request;

c with intent to evade any provision of regulations

17 to 20, destroys, mutilates, defaces, conceals or removes any document;

d otherwise intentionally obstructs the Secretary of State in the exercise of the powers under regulations

17 to 20.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
obstructing an official exercising a power
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (intentionally, knowingly, knowingly or recklessly, recklessly, with intent to).

“Without reasonable excuse” here is an element of the offence rather than a defence, so its absence is for the prosecution to prove (R v Charles [2009] EWCA Crim 1570).

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly, intentionally, with intent to, recklessly, knowingly or recklessly; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

1 A person commits an offence, if that person— a without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails within the time and in the manner specified (or, if no time has been specified, within a reasonable time) to comply with any request under regulations 17 to 19; b knowingly or recklessly gives any information, or produces any document, which

What would breach regulation 21(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. Refusing to let an inspector onto premises they are entitled to enter under the Trade, Aircraft and Shipping Sanctions (Civil Enforcement) Regulations 2024.
  2. Sending an official away, or telling staff to say nothing, where the power being exercised does not depend on anyone's consent.
  3. Physically blocking an examination, or removing something an officer has said they intend to inspect.

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
11 September 2024
In force from
10 October 2024
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 are made in exercise of the power in section 1(1)(a) and (c), (2) and (3) of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (c. 13) (“the Act”). They supplement trade sanctions regulations, aircraft sanctions regulations and shipping sanctions regulations made under section 1 of the Act, for the purpose of enforcing prohibitions or requirements imposed by those regulations. Part 1 contains general provisions. Regulation 2 contains definitions of words and expressions used in these Regulations, including “trade sanctions regulations”, “aircraft sanctions regulations” and “shipping sanctions regulations” (together, “sanctions regulations”). Regulation 3 makes provision for the application outside the United Kingdom of requirements imposed by these Regulations and regulation 4 sets out the purpose of these Regulations. Part 2 contains provisions relating to enforcement. Regulation 5 provides that the Secretary of State may impose a monetary penalty on a person if satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the person has breached a prohibition, or failed to comply with an obligation, imposed by or under sanctions regulations. The Secretary of State may not impose such a penalty in relation to a breach of a prohibition or a failure to comply with an obligation under trade sanctions regulations where regulation 5(3) applies. Regulation 6 supplements regulation 5 for the purposes of trade sanctions regulations and regulation 7 supplements regulation 5 for the purposes of aircraft sanctions regulations and shipping sanctions regulations. Regulation 8 makes provision for the Secretary of State to impose a monetary penalty on officers of a body corporate, partners in a partnership and members of unincorporated bodies which are not partnerships, as the case may be. Regulations 9 and 10 make provision for the calculation of the amount of the penalty under regulation 5 in relation to a breach of a prohibition or failure to comply with an obligation imposed by, respectively, trade sanctions regulations, and aircraft and shipping sanctions regulations. Regulation 11 creates appeal rights for a person subject to a monetary penalty and regulation 12 provides for related procedural safeguards. Regulation 13 provides that the Secretary of State may publish reports relating to monetary penalties, including where a monetary penalty is not imposed. This does not apply in relation to a breach of a prohibition or a failure to comply with an obligation under trade sanctions regulations where regulation 5(3) applies. Part 3 contains provisions relating to information and records. Regulation 14 provides that Part 3 does not apply in relation to a breach of a prohibition or a failure to comply with an obligation under trade sanctions regulations where regulation 5(3) applies. Regulations 15 and 16 create new reporting obligations on relevant persons in relation to suspected breaches of prohibitions or failures to comply with obligations under, respectively, trade sanctions regulations and aircraft sanctions regulations and shipping sanctions regulations. These regulations make failure to comply with these new reporting obligations a criminal offence. Regulation 17 creates a new general power for the Secretary of State to request information from a person for the purposes set out in that regulation, including monitoring compliance with or detecting evasion of sanctions regulations. Regulations 18 and 19 create new powers for the Secretary of State to request information from a person about, respectively, trade licences, and aircraft licences and shipping licences. Regulation 20 provides that a request under regulations 17 to 19 may include a request to produce certain documents. Regulation 21 creates new criminal offences in relation to the requirements in regulations 17 to 20 for a person to provide information or produce certain documents. Regulation 22 makes provision for penalties for an offence under the reporting obligations in regulations 15 and 16 and the information-related offences in regulation 21. Regulation 23 makes provision for the jurisdiction to try offences, regulation 24 makes provision for the procedure for offences by unincorporated bodies and regulation 25 makes provision in relation to the time limit for proceedings for summary offences. Regulation 26 makes provision for the Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to investigate an offence in relation to the reporting obligation in regulation 15 in relation to trade sanctions regulations and the information-related offences in regulation 21 to the extent that they apply to trade sanctions regulations. Regulations 27 and 28 prescribe powers for, respectively, the sharing and provision of information to enable the effective implementation and enforcement of the sanctions regime in the United Kingdom. Regulation 29 contains supplemental provision in relation to the sharing and provision of information under Part 3. Part 4 contains a miscellaneous provision applying the investigatory powers in Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (c. 15) to the offences under aircraft sanctions regulations and shipping sanctions regulations set out in regulation 30. A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

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 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person “commits 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