UK Offence Report

Amendment of the Payment Services Regulations 2017

regulation 3(2) of The Payment Services and Payment Accounts (Contract Termination) (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

2 In regulation 2(1) (interpretation), after the definition of “the SEPA regulation” insert— “serious crime” means— an offence listed in Part 1 (England & Wales), Part 1A (Scotland) or Part 2 (Northern Ireland) of Schedule

1 to the Serious Crime Act 2007; or conduct that would constitute an offence specified in sub-paragraph (a) if done in any part of the United Kingdom; .

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 3(2)?

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 Payment Services and Payment Accounts (Contract Termination) (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
12 June 2025
In force from
28 April 2026
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 regulation 51 of the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (“PSRs”) to impose new requirements on payment service providers (“PSPs”) in relation to the termination of framework contracts for payment services concluded for an indefinite period and entered into on or after 28th April 2026. Regulation 3 substitutes regulation 51 of the PSRs with new regulation 51 and new regulations 51A to 51D. Regulation 51 restates the requirements that apply to all framework contracts, regardless of when they were entered into. Regulation 51A restates the notice requirements that apply to framework contracts concluded for an indefinite period and entered into before 28th April 2026. Regulation 51B provides new notice requirements applying to framework contracts concluded for an indefinite period and entered into on or after 28th April 2026. The requirements include the following— PSPs must give 90 days’ instead of two months’ notice before the termination of a contract takes effect; the termination notice must also contain certain information, including an explanation of the reasons for termination which is sufficiently detailed and specific to enable the payment service user to understand why the framework contract is being terminated. Regulation 51B(4) provides that in the event of a conflict between the requirements in regulation 51B and another legal requirement to which the PSP is subject, the other legal requirement prevails to the extent of the conflict. Regulations 51C and 51D provide specific exceptions or modifications to the requirements in regulation 51B. Regulation 51(6) provides that discharge by agreement may not be relied upon to avoid the new contract termination requirements in regulations 51B and 51D(1)(b). Regulation 2 makes amendments to regulations 25 and 26 of the Payment Accounts Regulations 2015 mainly to bring the notice period and requirements to give reasons in line with the new requirements in the PSRs for contracts entered into on or after 28th April 2026. The other amendments made in these Regulations are consequential to the substitution of regulation 51 of the PSRs described above. A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector is available from HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ and is published with the Explanatory Memorandum alongside this instrument on 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 0.75.

Basis
the provision says the conduct “constitutes an offence”
Confidence
0.75 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