UK Offence Report

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

regulation 2(8) of The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 7) 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

8 For regulation

38 substitute— Travel restriction offences 38

1 A person who contravenes

a requirement in—

a regulation 14A, or

b regulation 14B, commits an offence.

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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(8)?

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. On these words an offence is committed where a person contravenes a requirement in— a regulation 14A, or b regulation 14B.
  2. 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. 7) Regulations 2021.
  3. Leaving out something the form asks for, where the omission is what makes the answer misleading.
  4. Producing a document to an official that has been altered since it was issued.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
£5,000
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
9 April 2021
In force from
12 April 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 provide that the restrictions and requirements set out in Schedule 3A to the principal Regulations will continue to apply to the whole of Wales until the end of the day on 25 April 2021. The Regulations also amend the Schedule 3A restrictions and requirements to— a remove the prohibition on gathering for the purposes of persuading or dissuading a person to vote in a particular manner in an election (canvassing); b enable all retail premises to re-open; c allow all close contact personal services to open their premises, allow such services to be provided in private dwellings, and allow spas and indoor sports and fitness facilities to open for the purposes of providing such services (only); d allow wedding venues to open for the purposes of enabling a person to visit the venue, by appointment, with a view to booking it in relation to the solemnisation of a marriage, formation of civil partnership or alternative wedding ceremony, or for the celebration of such an event; e allow crematoriums to fully open (and an equivalent change is made to Schedule 4 so that crematoriums won’t be required to close under Alert Level 4 either). The Regulations also remove the current travel restrictions across all Alert Levels and amend the principal Regulations to impose restrictions and requirements relating to international travel that apply to all Alert Levels. They— a provide that no person may depart Wales to a destination outside the common travel area (the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland) without a reasonable excuse; b provide that any person who is at an embarkation point (for example, an airport) for the purposes of leaving the common travel area must provide a completed international travel declaration form to an enforcement officer on request. The Regulations also amend the principal Regulations to require a person responsible for carrying out or facilitating activity undertaken for the purposes of persuading or dissuading a person to vote in a particular manner in an election (for example, canvassing) to take all reasonable measures to minimise the risk of exposure to, and the spread of, coronavirus at the activity. The person responsible must also have regard to any guidance issued by the Welsh Ministers about the reasonable measures. The Regulations also make minor and consequential amendments, including to provide for the enforcement of the new provisions on international travel. In consequence of the amendments relating to international travel, these Regulations also amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Public Health Information for Persons Travelling to Wales etc.) Regulations 2020 to impose a requirement on the operators of commercial transport services departing from Wales to a destination outside the common travel area. Such operators will be required to provide information to passengers about the restriction on leaving Wales for a destination outside the common travel area and the requirement to complete an international travel declaration form. This information is to be provided at the time of booking and at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled departure. 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 0.92.

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