UK Offence Report

Supplemental provisions

regulation 25(2) of The Corporate Joint Committees (General) (No. 2) (Wales) 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

2 Where any provision of this Part requires

a copy of

a document to be supplied to any person,

a person (“P”), having the custody of

a document, commits an offence if P, without reasonable excuse, refuses to furnish

a copy to the person entitled to obtain it.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
An element of the offence, for the prosecution to prove

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.

“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: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision; qualified by reasonable excuse (an element; prosecution disproves once raised).

The defence, as drafted

having the custody of a document, commits an offence if P, without reasonable excuse, refuses to furnish a copy to the person entitled to obtain it.

What would breach regulation 25(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. Not doing what the provision requires under the Corporate Joint Committees (General) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2021, by the time it requires it to be done.
  2. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£200
Standard scale
Level 1
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
Status not determined
Made
1 December 2021
In force from
3 December 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.

These Regulations are made as part of a suite of regulations connected with the establishment of corporate joint committees in Wales by regulations under Part 5 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. There are six parts to these Regulations. Part 1 makes provision about commencement and interpretation of these Regulations. Part 2 provides that corporate joint committees in Wales must appoint executive officers, namely a Chief Executive Officer, a Chief Finance Officer and a Monitoring Officer. This Part also provides further detail on the functions to be exercised by each of these office holders. Part 3 includes general provisions in relation to corporate joint committee staff. For example, this Part amends the definition of a “proper officer” in the Local Government Act 1972. It also applies provisions in Part 1 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to corporate joint committees. These provide that certain posts in a corporate joint committee are politically restricted as they are in a local authority and that holders of such posts in any relevant authority may not be co-opted as members of a corporate joint committee. Part 4 makes provision permitting corporate joint committees to make arrangements for their functions to be discharged by sub-committees, staff or in conjunction with other corporate joint committees or county or county borough councils in Wales. A sub-committee appointed by a corporate joint committee may have members who are not also members of the corporate joint committee. Part 5 provides detail on the manner in which meetings and proceedings of corporate joint committees (and any sub-committee of a corporate joint committee) are to be undertaken. For example notice and documentation requirements and provision about the location of (and remote access to) meetings. Part 6 sets out miscellaneous and consequential amendments that it is necessary to make to both some primary and secondary legislation as a result of the establishment of corporate joint committees and the other provisions in these Regulations. These Regulations are connected with the regulations which established certain corporate joint committees under Part 5 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 and which came into force on 1 April 2021 and 30 June 2021. A regulatory impact assessment was prepared at the time of making those establishment regulations and a copy can be obtained from the Local Government Strategic Finance Division, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.

Read the full note and every offence in this 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