UK Offence Report

Limitations on the power to immobilise vehicles

regulation 8(3) of The Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (General Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 2008

The provision has been revoked and no saving provision preserving liability for earlier conduct was found.

What the provision says

3 If, in a case in which an immobilisation device would have been fixed to a vehicle but for paragraph (1)(b), the vehicle was not being used— a in accordance with regulations under section 21A of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970; b in circumstances falling within section 117(1A)(b) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984(use where a disabled person’s concession would be available by virtue of displaying a non-GB badge), the person in charge of the vehicle will be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 disabled 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 disabled 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 8(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 Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (General Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 2008.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

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
Revoked
Revoked by
The Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (General Provisions) (Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 2008
Revoked on
22 May 2008
Made
6 March 2008
In force from
31 March 2008
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: the instrument was revoked by a later instrument found in this corpus.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations provide for the civil enforcement of parking contraventions in Wales in accordance with Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. Part 6 of the 2004 Act and Regulations made thereunder supersede the provisions of Part II and Schedule 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1991. Regulation 3 enables a penalty charge to be imposed for specified types of parking contravention. A penalty charge is payable by the owner of the vehicle concerned (regulation 4(1)), except in the circumstances specified in regulation 4(2) to (4) (vehicle hired from a vehicle hiring firm under a vehicle hiring agreement). In accordance with regulation 5, a penalty charge is not to be imposed except on the basis of a record produced by an “approved device” (see section 92(1) of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Approved Devices) (Wales) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/620 (W.69)) or information given by a civil enforcement officer as to conduct observed by that officer. Regulation 6 provides that a penalty charge is not to be payable for a parking contravention where the contravention is the subject of criminal proceedings or a fixed penalty notice has been given under the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, but, if a penalty charge is in fact paid in either of those circumstances, it must be refunded by the enforcement authority. Provision is made by Part 3 as to the immobilisation of vehicles. Regulation 7 defines when an immobilisation device may be fixed to a vehicle, requires a notice to be fixed to the vehicle at the time of immobilisation and creates the offences of interfering with the notice or the immobilisation device. Regulation 8 specifies exceptions to the general power to immobilise and regulation 9 specifies the pre-requisites for the release of a vehicle from an immobilisation device. In Part 4, regulation 10 applies section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, with modifications, to the income and expenditure of enforcement authorities under Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and regulation 11 provides for the carrying forward of the surpluses by local authorities in accounts kept under section 55 as that section applied to those authorities under orders made under Schedule 3 to the Road Traffic Act 1991. A full Regulatory Impact Assessment and Explanatory Memorandum can be obtained from the Integrated Transport Unit, Transport, Planning and Administration Division, Transport Wales, Welsh Assembly Government, Crown Offices, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ or on the Welsh Assembly Government website at http://www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/buslegislation/bus/bus-legislation-sub/bus-legislation-sub-annulment.htm

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 is “guilty of 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