UK Offence Report

Amendment to the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020

regulation 2(7) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 17) Regulations 2021

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

7 After regulation

40 insert— Offence of possessing false or misleading evidence relating to vaccination or coronavirus test results 40A It is an offence for

a person (“P”) to possess evidence of

a kind described in regulation 16A(1) which P knows is false or misleading.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
making a false or misleading statement
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 2(7)?

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. Entering a figure on a form or return that is known to be wrong under the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 17) Regulations 2021.
  2. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  3. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

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 October 2021
In force from
11 October 2021
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.

Part 2A of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 enables the Welsh Ministers, by regulations, to make provision for the purpose of preventing, protecting against, controlling or providing a public health response to the incidence or spread of infection or contamination in Wales. These Regulations are made in response to the serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wales. These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1609 (W. 335)) (“the principal Regulations”). The amendments— insert a new regulation 16A into the principal Regulations which— requires the person responsible for certain premises to take reasonable measures to ensure that adults are on the premises only if they have what is commonly referred to as a “COVID pass” (that is – evidence of either vaccination, participation in a relevant vaccine trial, a negative test for coronavirus, or a positive test within the last 6 months which has been followed by the appropriate period of isolation); specifies that the premises to which this requirement applies are— nightclubs and other places where music is provided for dancing if they serve alcohol and are open at any time between midnight and 5 a.m. (and the requirement to have a COVID pass applies to such premises at any time, including times outside these hours, if they are open and are providing music for people to dance); premises where an event is being held with over 10,000 people in attendance if they are all seated, or over 500 indoors and 4,000 outdoors if they are not all seated; specifies exceptions to the requirement for— premises holding wedding or civil partnership receptions, or wakes; open air events which are free and unticketed, and which have multiple entry points; protests and picketing; open air mass-participation sporting events such as running and cycling races; makes it clear that for venues that do not always provide music for dancing the requirement applies only at those times when music for dancing is provided; exempts those working or providing a voluntary service at premises from being required to have evidence of vaccination or testing in order to be on the premises; includes some interpretative provisions relating to vaccines and testing; inserts a new regulation 30A which permits enforcement officers (in this context police officers and police community support officers and any other person designated for the purposes of this regulation) to require evidence from a person who an officer suspects may be in possession of false or misleading evidence of a person’s vaccination or testing status; creates an offence in new regulation 40A of possessing false or misleading evidence of vaccination or testing status; makes consequential amendments to Schedule 8 to the principal Regulations (which provides for enforcement of the “reasonable measures” regime in Part 4 of those Regulations) so as to permit local authority enforcement officers to use the powers in the Schedule in relation to reasonable measures taken under the new regulation 16A. The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has not been prepared as to the likely cost and benefit of complying with these Regulations.

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 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 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