UK Offence Report

Amendments to regulation 2 (interpretation and delegation)

regulation 6(3) of The Police (Conduct, Performance and Complaints and Misconduct) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

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

3 After paragraph (2) insert— 2A For the purposes of these Regulations, an offence is an “indictable-only” offence if—

a in the case of an offence under the law of England and Wales or Northern Ireland, it is an offence which, if committed by an adult, is triable only on indictment;

b in the case of an offence under the law of Scotland, it is an offence triable only on indictment. .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 6(3)?

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 Police (Conduct, Performance and Complaints and Misconduct) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

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
6 May 2025
In force from
28 May 2025
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 the Police Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/527) (“the Police Regulations”), the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/4) (“the Conduct Regulations”), the Police (Performance) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/3) (“the Performance Regulations”), the Police (Complaints and Misconduct) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/2) (“the Complaints and Misconduct Regulations”) and the Police Appeals Tribunals Rules 2020 (S.I. 2020/1) (“the PAT Rules”). Part 2 amends the Police Regulations. Regulation 3 provides that a special constable must be on probation for such period as the Secretary of State determines. Regulation 4 provides that a special constable may be discharged under regulation 13 of the Police Regulations by a chief officer of police. It also provides that a chief officer may delegate their functions under regulation 13 to a senior officer, former senior officer or senior police staff member. Part 3 amends the Conduct Regulations. Regulation 5 gives effect to the Schedule. The Schedule introduces a presumption that a former police officer should be referred to an accelerated misconduct hearing rather than a misconduct hearing unless the officer opts for a misconduct hearing or the appropriate authority determines that a misconduct hearing is necessary. Regulation 6 makes various changes to the interpretative provisions, including to clarify that a conviction for an indictable-only offence will always amount to gross misconduct. Regulations 7, 10 and 14 correct errors in (respectively) regulations 4, 15 and 28 of the Conduct Regulations. Regulation 8 provides that written notices or documents may be sent by email rather than by post. It also creates rules for deemed dates of service. Regulations 9 and 11 to 13 make various changes in consequence of the introduction of the Police (Vetting) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/502) (“the Vetting Regulations”). Regulations 15 and 17 provide that disciplinary action must be imposed in cases where misconduct or gross misconduct is found. They also provide that, where gross misconduct is found, the outcome must be dismissal without notice unless exceptional circumstances apply. Regulation 16 provides that the appropriate authority may refer a case to an accelerated misconduct hearing even if it has not received a statement of the investigator’s belief that the special conditions are satisfied. Part 4 amends the Performance Regulations. Regulation 19 makes various changes to the interpretative provisions, including to introduce a definition of “appeal manager” and to remove the requirement that a “senior manager” be the supervisor of the second line manager of the officer concerned. Regulation 21 provides that written notices or documents may be sent by email rather than by post. It also creates rules for deemed dates of service. Regulation 28 requires the officer concerned to attend a meeting where a matter is referred under the Vetting Regulations to be dealt with under the Performance Regulations. Regulations 30 and 52 provide that the officer concerned must demonstrate sufficient improvement for a default period of three months where they are served with a written improvement notice. Regulation 32 provides that an appeal against the finding and outcome of a first stage meeting must be heard by an appeal manager rather than by the second line manager of the officer concerned. Regulation 35 omits Part 4 and thereby reduces the previous three-stage system to a two-stage process. Regulation 41 clarifies that a panel chair may be a member of a police force who is acting as a senior officer even if they are not a substantive senior officer. Other changes are consequential on those set out above. Part 5 amends the Complaints and Misconduct Regulations. Regulations 57 and 58 are consequential on regulation 60, which provides that written notices or documents may be sent by email rather than by post. It also creates rules for deemed dates of service. Regulation 59 provides that the appropriate authority may, with the agreement of the Director General of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, refer a case to an accelerated misconduct hearing even if it has not received a statement of belief of the person investigating or the Director General (as the case may be) that the special conditions are satisfied. Part 6 amends the PAT Rules to reflect the amendments to the Performance Regulations. Part 7 makes transitional provision. It provides that Part 3, 4, 5 or 6 does not have effect in relation to a matter that pre-dates the coming into force of these Regulations, or post-dates it but relates to a matter that is already being handled in accordance with the applicable conduct, performance or complaints regime. However, it provides that the Schedule does have effect where the officer concerned has not already been given notice of their referral to misconduct proceedings or an accelerated misconduct hearing. 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.

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 →

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 0.94.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.94 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